Defense, the Navy is studying new drone carriers, this is the “Shaman” project.

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This is the first taste of “Marina of the future”. The Navy has developed one preliminary studycalled “Shaman drone carrier“, to understand what are the requirements, in terms of essential components and enabling technologies, which could lead, not before 2040, to the development of a system that is a real center, a platform suitable for different types of drones to carry This entire process could lead to the creation of a “network of networks” that would allow unmanned fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft to be launched and recovered for intelligence and surveillance tasks.

The progress of this project will be updated during the “Sea Drone Technology Conference 2024”, the fourth edition of the national conference on marine robotics that will take place on October 29 and 30 at the Aquatic Center of the Italian Swimming Federation in Ostia (Rome).

The mandate to Fincantieri

The “Shamano Drone Carrier” project, funded by the National Military Research Plan, was awarded to Fincantieri with the aim of defining the “conceptual design” of this new drone carrier, which will also include advanced command, control and communication system for the operational management of fleets of unmanned vehicles with the launch and recovery systems.

Use of drones on Navy ships

The Navy has been using drones on their ships for some time. In June 2023, in fact, on the offshore patrol ship “Paolo Thaon di Revel” the armed force presented the new version of the “AWHero”, a small remote controlled helicopter of the 200 kilogram class made by Leonardo. In addition, last November, on board the frigate “Carlo Bergamini”, the first long-range aviation division of the Navy made for the first time two launches and as many recovery of the fixed-wing drone “ScanEagle” made by the American. Boeing.

Up to 14 fixed and rotary wing drones will be available

And just last March, the House Defense Committee approved a program that will allow the Navy to acquire up to 14 fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones. The armed forces employ aeven underwater robotsincluding the “Hugin 1000” of Norwegian Kongsberg Maritime and the “Pluto Gigas” and “Multipluto” of the Italian Gaymarine.