Martek Named on EU Maritime Drone Contract

Martek Marine (Martek) has been awarded a two-year
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Services (RPAS) contract from the
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The services offered will
fulfil part of the world's largest ever maritime drone
contract.
Part of a five-year EMSA strategy of improving coastguard
monitoring and surveillance of maritime activity valued at €67
million, the service provision from Martek not only includes the
RPAS, commonly known as drones, but also the pilots, long-range
antennae, mission control vehicles and ground crew.
Video and drone sensor data will be streamed live to a control
center, to allow EU Member States to make prompt decisions on
intervention actions.
RPAS will be used to perform beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)
operations and will assist with border control activities, search
& rescue operations and monitoring of pollution, as well as
the detection of illegal fishing and drug and people trafficking.
A typical surveillance task involves the deployment of a drone
from the deck of a ship to a specified area of interest. The
drone then collects requested surveillance information before
sending it, in addition to payload data, to the users.
The chosen specification of drones under the EMSA contract are of
compact design, making them extremely manoeuvrable in addition to
having the ability to start and land vertically from both shore
and vessels. Focusing on short range operations, the drones will
be equipped with the latest sensors designed for maritime
surveillance. To operate effectively in the harsh maritime
environment, the technology has been developed to withstand storm
force wind and heavy rain, snow and salt spray.
Paul Luen, Martek Group, CEO said, "This contract sets us up for
major expansion as THE maritime drone experts. More world firsts
will be delivered by us in this exciting technology field during
2017, as we launch further disruptive drone services."
Mar 17, 2017