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Al Seer Marine unmanned surface vessel (Al Seer Marine)
BEIRUT — Monaco-based tech company MARSS has joined forces with Emirati Al Seer Marine to co-develop a maritime mobile command and control (C2) center, in which MARSS will integrate its C2 system on Al Seer’s unmanned surface vessels.
According to a statement by MARSS Wednesday, the integrated system will demonstrate C2 capabilities and marine security features, providing situational awareness and automatic threat detection. The final system is expected to be unveiled by mid-2024.
“Al Seer Marine’s USVs, in combination with MARSS’ technology, will, in effect, be turned into a mobile NiDAR sensor station, sending a situational awareness picture back to a mothership or Command and Control center. As such, the USV could fulfill a defensive function, if desired,” a MARSS spokesperson told Breaking Defense. NiDAR refers to MARSS’ situational awareness tech suite.
The agreement signed between the two firms on Wednesday will support Al Seer Marine’s “Autonomous Center of Excellence” for Maritime Autonomous Systems (MTII Center), according to the statement. The center is a training and maritime maintenance facility, includes a large 3D printer and is located in Al Seer’s shipyard in Abu Dhabi.
The agreement marks the first partnership between MARSS and an Emirati firm in the maritime domain.
“MARSS has previously worked with other UAE firms on land-based projects, and is already protecting a number of key assets and critical infrastructure sites in the Emirates,” the spokesperson told Breaking Defense. The pokesperson said that the collaboration is still in its formative stages.
“At MARSS, we have spent many years innovating and improving our world-leading NiDAR technology to create an adaptable, scalable, intelligent and easy-to-use platform, which offers unparalleled, real-time protection against security threats,” MARSS’ CEO and founder, Johannes Pinl, said in a statement.
From his point if view, AL Seer Marine CEO Guy Neivens said in a statement that the firms are “confident that we can seamlessly integrate MARSS’ advanced security solutions into our state-of-the-art vessels, ensuring unprecedented levels of security, defense, and safety for our clients.”
The two firms are also cooperating in operational training programs and expect to “participate in contracted product and technology demonstrations within the region,” according to their statement.
MARSS is active elsewhere in the Gulf, having previously opened an office in Saudi Arabia in 2021, which helped the company ink a multi-million dollar deal with a local entity to secure its facility with a major RADiRguard installation in September 2022.
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