Danish Aerospace Company A/S (DAC) will receive a subsidy from the EU Defense Fund for participation in the CUIIS project (Comprehensive Underwater Intervention Information System), along with companies and research institutions from six other countries. The project aim is to develop underwater technology with sensors, monitoring and control systems for military divers.

This is the first time DAC enters the arena for wearable sensors for extreme environments on Earth and within the area of defense. With the subsidy from EU’s Defense Fund for participation in the CUIIS project (Comprehensive Underwater Intervention Information System) the coming three years will be focusing on development of underwater technology with sensors, monitoring and control systems for military divers.

The project is part of the EU Commission’s recently published results for the European Defense Industrial Development Program 2020 (EDIDP), under the theme "Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea".

The project is led by the Bulgarian Defense Institute (Institut po Otbrana - Bulgarian Defense Institute) and the consortium consists of 18 companies and institutions from Denmark, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Poland, Romania, Italy and. The CUIIS project has been evaluated by an independent assessment committee and found suitable for EU support via the EU Defense Fund and has a total budget of DKK 42.8 million (EUR 5.7 million).

DAC will be responsible for the sensors and the underwater technology for monitoring the health of the divers. DAC's total expected subsidy for the project is approximately DKK 2.67 million. (358,000 EUR) The project is expected to start in the autumn of 2021 and run for three years and consists of development, design, prototyping and a test phase.

CEO Thomas A. E. Andersen, who has been a part of DAC since 1988, is incredibly proud.

“It is outstanding that the CUIIS project has been selected for support from the EU Defense Fund. This really gives us the opportunity to pursue this important strategic area which was identified at our IPO in 2019.

Here, we can for the first time utilize our vast space experience and technologies within a completely different area and in an extreme environment on Earth. There are a lot of parallels between monitoring astronauts in space and underwater divers. Our internal development activities on wearable sensors have led to this point, and with the support of the EU Defense Fund, we will have the opportunity to develop and build a prototype for use by military divers.” explains Thomas A. E. Andersen.

He continues;

“We hope that with this project, we can help create a tool and sensors that will benefit military divers throughout the EU, but specifically also in Denmark by e.g., the Danish Navy Seals (Frømandskorpset). In addition to the military applications, such sensors and its technology will also be able to be used by commercial divers and, over time, perhaps also by recreational divers.” says Thomas A. E. Andersen.

Danish Aerospace Company A/S has internal development projects for new wearables sensors to monitor the health of astronauts and people in extreme environments on Earth, such as divers, mountain climbers, fighter pilots and race drivers.

The CUIIS project focuses on the area of underwater technologies for physical support and recovery of divers, by building a command-, control-, communications- and information (C4I) mission system for underwater management, underwater monitoring, situational awareness, positioning, navigation, and manned-unmanned teaming. It will provide solutions to avoid/mitigate Decompression Sickness (DCS) risks, create and use a real-time underwater joint operational picture through the fusion of various types of information, and ensure interoperability, coordination, and de-confliction of underwater intervention activities, including manned-unmanned teaming, involving the teaming of a large number of divers and underwater unmanned vehicles (UUV).

For further information:

Thomas A. E. Andersen, CEO, Danish Aerospace Company A/S

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