National Scuba Diving Center, new calls for companies
The national underwater dimension hub (PNS) in La Spezia is putting new calls on the table for 10 projects, open to large, medium and small companies; and is drawing the guidelines for Italy's future submarine. "In the 18 months of the hub's life, which was inaugurated on 12 December 2023 - said Admiral Cristiano Nervi, director of the PNS and the Cssn (Naval Support and Experimentation Centre of the Navy) - we have promoted, including those started last week, 18 research projects, for potential investments close to a total of 115 million euros; the projects, moreover, are co-financed at 50% so the hub's contribution is exactly half; and so far we have gone for 65 million on the contract, relating to the first 8 projects. Now we are focusing on the 50 million relating to the 10 that we have just started".
The opportunity to take stock of the underwater was offered by Confindustria La Spezia, which organized a meeting between the leaders of the Pns and local businesses. "The hub - said the president of the entrepreneurs' association, Mario Gerini - is proposed as a national technological incubator, destined to become a point of reference for research and development in the underwater field, not only for military purposes, but also dual and civil: environmental monitoring, safety of underwater infrastructures, control of marine resources. The value of this initiative lies precisely in its aggregative dimension, capable of creating high-value relationships between people, skills, industry, research, public administration, universities and the armed forces".
In concrete terms, he continued, "we are talking about the possibility of building a real Italian scuba diving supply chain: solid, innovative, competitive at an international level. This means real opportunities for our companies, but also precious occasions to attract new companies, startups, skills, external investments".
The tenders, Nervi concluded, «move along two technological lines: the creation of an underwater infrastructure network for real-time monitoring of the seabed and the development of a multifunctional underwater vehicle for military, civil and industrial operations». One vehicle, he recalled, already exists. It is «Saipem's Flatfish that operates at 3,000 meters of depth; but each of its components is foreign. We, on the other hand, want Italy to produce all the components, so that it does not have to depend on anyone».
As for the infrastructure network, Nervi said, "we have established that it was appropriate to exploit the existing telecommunications cable backbones. Because optical fiber can also function as a sensor and the data that we acquire with the fiber, or with other sensors with which we will enrich the cable backbone, will allow us to understand what is moving underwater and possibly also classify and transfer the data to land, always via optical fiber."
The dorsals, the admiral clarified, "will also be equipped with docking stations to be able to interoperate with the vehicles. We must imagine a vehicle that enters a sort of underwater garage, rests, like an iPhone at the base, recharges, transfers data at high speed and, without ever returning to the surface, restarts its mission, which can be military but also research, because the instrument is multifunctional".
Over 100 industrial and academic entities participated in the first 8 calls and, starting from 2026, the first prototypes developed by the winning companies, including SMEs and universities, will be available. The experimental phase should be concluded by summer 2027. The backbones, therefore, will not only transport data, but should also be able to detect anomalies and recharge underwater vehicles with docking stations .
As for the 10 calls just launched, three of the projects, for an average amount of 10 million each, concern the development of effectors, i.e. instruments, not necessarily offensive, capable of protecting underwater infrastructures; of a particular type of sonar and of a specific propulsion system for autonomous underwater vehicles.
Two projects, worth 5 and 6 million respectively each (always co-financed at 50%), concern the development of materials suitable for operating in extreme underwater environments and of a Lidar, an imaging tool based on laser technology, capable of improving image quality at greater distances than sonars.
The remaining projects (two of about one million, one of 2 million and the other of 4 million) are open to the initiative of the proponents, i.e. companies and research centers. The goal is to collect innovative proposals, both at a low level of technological readiness, aimed at exploring new paths or technologies still in the initial phase, and at a high Trl (Technology readiness level), aimed at accelerating the operational use of already existing demonstrators.
From 2027, Nervi stated, «the financial needs of the PNS will stabilize at around 35-40 million euros per year while, at the moment, the Mimit finances us with 9 million per year, the Defense with 3 million: But we have discovered that we are attracting the interest of the Regions, so much so that we have already concluded an agreement with Friuli Venezia Giulia, which finances us, and others are interested: in Liguria there is a basic agreement and then there is a fairly strong interest from Lazio and Campania. But clearly the companies, universities and research centers have to arrive first».
Meanwhile, the Pns is expanding, in La Spezia, also with new infrastructure on land. "We are going to a contract - said Nervi - for the project of a test area at a depth of 250 meters. It must be taken into account that beyond 200 meters abysmal conditions occur; therefore, except for the pressure, we will be able to test all the technological demonstrators that we will bring forward: we will be able to do approvals and tests for everyone, not only for the Navy and not only for our projects, but also for those who want to come and do tests in a unique context".
News and insights on political, economic and financial events.
Sign up
ilsole24ore
