The Italian corporations Fincantieri and Leonardo said recently they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop systems to help protect underwater infrastructure.
The companies said the Oct. 27 MoU focuses on collaborating on the underwater domain, “with the aim of pooling their respective expertise and capabilities in the sector.”
They said the decision also is related to the incoming establishment of the Italian National Underwater Hub (Polo nazionale della Subacquea) that aims to strengthen research and innovation in the underwater domain, to ensure safety in it, and promote industrial and economic opportunities.
The signing took place with Chief of the Italian Navy, Admiral Enrico Credendino.
Fincantieri and Leonardo said their agreement particularly seeks to have joint development of a network of platforms and surveillance, control and protection systems used for critical infrastructure and underwater areas, “to respond to the needs indicated at the national level and within the scope of European initiatives.”
Despite this collaboration, they said they also “aim to preserve and develop their respective capabilities and competences to provide potential customers with state-of-the-art systems, high and competitive performance.”
Fincantieri and Leonardo said their cooperation will also cover capabilities to protect strategic underwater networks, cables, communication backbones, offshore infrastructure, and underwater threat alarms systems. It also includes safeguarding exploration, sea mining and mineral extraction activities on the seabed.
The companies argued they seek to enhance the Italian industrial supply chain by supporting [small and medium scale enterprises, or SMEs] and start-ups, which they intend to help develop “innovative technologies for the specific environment and in a multi-domain perspective.”
“Our collaboration with Leonardo, already consolidated through the Orizzonte Sistemi Navali joint venture, is further strengthened with this Memorandum of Understanding in the underwater sector. The latter represents a universe full of opportunities on which Fincantieri intends to focus with determination: from the defense of critical submarine infrastructures to the use of drones. Our goal is to continue to innovate the sector with cutting-edge solutions,” Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO and managing director of Fincantieri, said in a statement.
“The great depths of the underwater world represent a new frontier of security, to be faced with the development of a new generation of technologies. The approach can only be multidisciplinary, through the strong synergy of the national industry, which can boast unique, state-of-the-art and internationally recognized skills. The strategic objective is to guarantee control, surveillance, security and prosperity of the underwater space,” Roberto Cingolani, CEO and general manager of Leonardo, added.
“With Fincantieri we are working to build an offer dedicated to this domain, starting from our most consolidated knowledge and skills, such as sensors, manned and unmanned systems,” Cingolani continued.
This comes after the Italian Navy and Italian telecommunications company Sparkle, which owns submarine cables, signed a MoU in 2022 to improve the protection of subsea communication infrastructure.
Credendino was a signatory to that earlier MoU as well as an observer to this latest one.