Improve the ability to identify, classify and track the missile threats

Past and on-going naval conflicts have shown that the missile threat remains a fundamental danger for surface vessels. The need to better anticipate existing and emerging increased threats and to keep the initiative in the theatre is crucial.

Key to this is the ability to track, classify and identify aerial threats to allow for a successful future naval collaborative engagement capability. By sharing and merging raw data from sensors of the different units composing the task force, crews will benefit from a drastically improved tactical situational awareness.

E-NACSOS will improve the ability to identify, classify and track these threats. Early warning is the key element in the engagement chain that will enable the preservation of the manoeuvrability at sea of European naval forces.

E-NACSOS will complement and not supplement existing tactical data links (TDL): TDL will continue being used as the key channel of communication between allies. The activities within E-NACSOS will target the whole Naval Collaborative Surveillance (NCS) value chain from the definition, design, development and prototyping of NCS main functions that are in compliance with the partners existing national strategy, to the final demonstrations at sea.

The E-NACSOS consortium (25 Industries across 12 countries) coordinated by Naval Group is built in a valuable spirit of collaboration across several partners from different European Union Member States. The consortium is a naval industry-driven consortium and is surrounded by innovative SMEs and well-renowned academics coming from various areas of Europe and with high complementarity skills among the participants yielding an example of diversity and inclusiveness, leading to a productive and innovative working group.

The industries contributing to E-NACSOS are Naval Group (coordinator), Cafatech, Hensoldt , HENSOLDT Cyber GmbH, TERRA SPATIUM, ISD , Leonardo, Thales Netherlands, TNO, Metra, Navantia, Indra, SAAB, SAAB KMS, Naval Group Belgium, Thales SIX, Thales LAS, Thales DMS, Atlas, Hagenuk, ELETTRONICA, AIA, Thales EDISOFT, STAM and EM3WORKS. Partners of E-NACSOS also rely on high quality subcontractors involved in the action.

The E-NACSOS Programme managed by OCCAR is a four-year collaborative effort between the European Commission, Industry and the Participating States. The Participating States collectively contribute approximately 35M€ to the Programme, along with the European Defence Fund (EDF) providing 65M€.

E-NACSOS Participating States

The E-NACSOS Programme targets two main activities:

1. Define the NCS standard protocol and architecture:

   For The first objective, the Contractors will gather all its competence to define the architecture of the NCS capability and the associated standards protocols and functions ensuring improved tactical picture and interoperability among different European navies. , A key output of the E-NACSOS project will be a set of standard elements, protocols and data models, defining the kind of data (data from heterogeneous sensors, time and navigation data) that need to be shared and fused through the network thus allowing a collaborative enhanced tactical situation awareness.

   The resulting NCS standard protocol specification will be shared with all supporting Member States, paving the way for a genuine European interoperability standard to which all interested Navies, from the EU or partner countries outside the EU, could connect. Besides these NCS standard protocol, the Contractors will define the architecture of the NCS capability in the sense of describing the main principles, functions, interfaces and constraints expected from the capability, and the requirements for further developments in existing combat systems. In the definition of the envisaged NCS architecture, scalability, flexibility, security and extensibility will be considered.

2. Demonstrate operations in a relevant environment:

   The second objective of the E-NACSOS Programme is to test and prove the added operational value of the NCS capability and the development of advanced collaborative functions (referred to as the three levels of the call text proposals), with demonstrations at sea.

   With the active support of Member States and Navies, the Contractors aim at conducting two demonstrations at sea. For that purpose, the E-NACSOS Programme will rely on assets made available by the Navies – be it surface vessels participating in the exercises, aerial and land-based assets (like air defence ground base radars). On this basis, the Contractors will design, develop and prototype the main functions of the NCS capability so as to test this capability during the two demonstrations.

   Finally, the E-NACSOS Programme will strongly take into consideration the heterogeneity of combat system equipment and architecture of existing combat systems deployed on board each Member State’ vessel. Indeed, dedicated studies within the E-NACSOS Programme will provide guidelines for further partial or full implementation of NCS functions and standard features in compliance with partners’ existing national strategy.

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