SEACURE: A Major European Defence Project Led by Thales to Prepare European Navies for Underwater Warfare

Within the framework of the European Defence Fund (EDF), Thales is leading the SEACURE project to achieve sovereign European capability in future Anti-Submarine and Seabed Warfare. The SEACURE program began in November 2024 for a duration of 45 months and involves 35 European partners from 13 EU member states. Building on the successful completion of the EDIDP (European Defence Industrial Development Program) SEANICE project at the end of 2023, the aim of SEACURE is to achieve a sovereign European capability in future autonomous Anti-Submarine and Seabed Warfare.

SEACURE is proposed as a continuation of the EDIDP SEANICE research project that ended in November 2023. It offers a new way of protecting our critical maritime infrastructures and guarantees the freedom to operate in our own waters, detecting and protecting against any external threats.

The main objective of SEACURE is to develop and demonstrate at sea, by 2028, an integrated system of systems aimed at successfully performing autonomous joint Anti-Submarine Warfare and Seabed Warfare operations and protecting critical maritime infrastructure. It focuses on the detection, classification, identification and tracking of underwater threats in challenging conditions, using air, surface and underwater drones. SEACURE will offer a versatile defence system for such operations, increasing the level of autonomy, based on open, agile, modular and scalable system-of-systems architecture. In addition, it will be interoperable and ready for collaborative combat.

SEACURE not only strengthens maritime security today, but also lays the groundwork for a more resilient and cooperative global maritime future.