Page 21: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2023)

The REPMUS Exercise 2023 took place between September 11- 29, 2023 at the Portuguese Navy’s Operational Experimentation

Center in Tróia and Sesimbra Navy facilities. The NATO Maritime

Geospatial, Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre of Excel- lence directly supports the Portuguese Navy during this exer- cise, playing a leadership role in the coordination of the Rapid

Environmental Assessment and leading the Rapid Environmental

Assessment Working Group on partner equipment and sensors.

industry and academia and, this year, provides Allied Com- systems, using the Collaborative Autonomy Tasking Layer for mand Transformation an opportunity to introduce our new mine countermeasure and critical underwater infrastructure

Operational Experimentation Emerging Disruptive Technolo- protection missions.

gies Task Force,” said Supreme Allied Commander Transfor- To gain valuable on-site feedback for exercise participants, mation, General Philippe Lavigne. the NATO Maritime Geospatial, Meteorological and Oceano-

Concurrent to Dynamic Messenger 2023, Allied Command graphic Centre of Excellence in Lisbon directly supported the

Transformation will be working towards establishing the ini- Portuguese Navy and exercise participants in the coordination tial operating capability of the Operational Experimentation of the rapid environmental assessment and leading the Rapid

Emerging Disruptive Technologies Task Force in late autumn Environmental Assessment Working Group on partner equip- 2023. According to a NATO statement, the REPMUS and Dy- ment and sensors.

namic Messenger exercises and experimentation present an opportunity to explore technologies to advance the Autonomy BALTOPS

Implementation Plan developed by the task force to identify Earlier in the year, Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 23, held technology options for further experimentation in 2024. Ad- near Putlos, Germany, provided an opportunity for the U.S. ditionally, the Task Force team will be re? ning objectives and Sixth Fleet and allied and partner nations to showcase un- evaluation criteria for future events focused on Intelligence, manned systems capabilities.

Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and situational aware- Partnering with the U.S. Naval research enterprise, BAL- ness within the maritime domain. TOPS allowed Sailors and Marines to use unmanned under-

At the July Vilnius Summit, NATO leaders stated that while water vehicles (UUVs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the “protection of Critical Undersea Infrastructures on Allies’ and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Unmanned systems territory remains a national responsibility […] NATO stands are a force multiplier, reduce operational risk in high threat ready to support Allies if and when requested.” For that rea- areas and provide strategic advantage.

son, this year’s Dynamic Messenger included experimentation “The BALTOPS exercise series is a great opportunity to on “emerging disruptive technologies” to address the threats experiment,” said Anthony Constable, an Of? ce of Naval to critical undersea infrastructure. Research science advisor to U.S. Sixth Fleet. “BALTOPS is

The Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation is well-supported by Allies and partners, and because the exer- also participating in scenarios that demonstrate interoperabili- cise has such a strong history, it gives us ample opportunity ty of C4 (command, control, communications and computers) to collect operator feedback on how they can best utilize the for unmanned systems. These experiments test system of sys- systems. Additionally, it allows us to showcase new technol- tems autonomy between the CMRE and partner autonomous ogy to our NATO partners for future collaboration.” www.marinetechnologynews.com 21

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