Why you need an Authority on underwater traffic

27 March 20231 year ago babelfish

The creation of the National Underwater Traffic Authority is required. Who was there and what was said at the presentation of the first global report on the underwater world created by the Leonardo-Civiltà delle Macchine foundation and the Italian Navy in collaboration with Cnr and La Sapienza

In addition to space and cyber, we are witnessing a race to the abyss and Italy can be the protagonist, but we need an underwater traffic authority and monitoring systems for the underwater world.

This is what emerged during today's presentation at the Livorno Naval Academy of the First Global Report on the underwater world “Civiltà del mare. Geopolitics, strategy, interests in the underwater world. The role of Italy” created by the Leonardo-Civiltà delle Macchine Foundation and the Italian Navy in collaboration with the National Research Council (CNR) and the Sapienza University of Rome.

As highlighted by Leonardo's president, General Luciano Carta, "the strategic and technological challenges of the underwater world require a multidisciplinary and integrated approach, not only to guarantee the safety of the infrastructures and the services they supply, but also for the balance of an increasingly vulnerable environment in which the interest of industry is growing: we have the duty and the possibility to act much sooner to guarantee the safety of our sea and our coasts”.

All the details.

RACE TO THE ABYSS

"We are witnessing a real race to the abyss in which we must act in advance, arranging adequate conditions for the protection of our national interests", highlighted Admiral Enrico Credendino, Chief of the Naval Staff, speaking on the occasion of the presentation of the First Global Report on the Underwater World. National interests, he clarified, including "the extraction and transport of energy sources, essential for our economy and which can also allow the country to play a leading role in the energy security of the entire continent, from any source it comes from”. The same goes for "digital connections", a game in which Italy, again due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean, can play "a significant role". So "the maritime space, the depths are vital in this century" and the sea "is central to our country" and there must be "awareness" of this, concluded Admiral Credendino.

IMPORTANCE OF THE DIVE CENTER

"We can consider war a sum of multiple effects in terms of security, energy and the environment, which make us call for greater attention to underwater threats, as they are potentially able to hit strategic structures". “The damaged Nord Stream pipeline and the shearing of the Svalbard Undersea Cable System, which connects Norway with the Svalbard station, have presented us with significant challenges. Scenarios in which Italy, which is at the center of the Mare Nostrum, can only assume an important role within NATO”, observed General Luciano Carta, president of Leonardo.

And again "Admiral Credendino drew attention to the increase in Russian ships in the Mediterranean which makes the risk of potential accidents high", recalled Carta. "Russian submarine reconnaissance capabilities have been known for some time, carried out as part of officially scientific research programs but, in fact, tools for mapping and identifying submarine cables and other structures". "Without a doubt, the recent introduction of the diving center with the budget law and Leonardo is ready to offer its contribution also in view of the hoped-for establishment of the national authority for the control of underwater traffic", underlined Carta. Then Leonardo's president highlighted the importance of the UN agreement "reached in New York for the protection and sustainable management of the high seas, over 200 nautical miles beyond the EEZ, whose ultimate objective is the protection of 30% of offshore waters by 2030”.

NECESSARY CONSTITUTION OF AN AUTHORITY FOR DIVE TRAFFIC

Let's start from the parallelism in the aerial domain, there is an area between 20 and 80 km of altitude which is still waiting to be controlled, the same happened in the maritime domain with the rediscovery of the underwater world, in particular of great depths and the surfacing of new security threats” explained the CEO of Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo. “To develop full underwater situation awareness, underwater manned and unmanned sensors and systems capable of operating at depth are needed. The very idea of unmanned underwater systems, perhaps armed, is almost anathema for many, but there are those who already offer these systems on the market”. "That is why, just as happens in the sky, it is urgent to develop monitoring systems also for the underwater world and the establishment of an Underwater Traffic Authority represents an important step in this situation" because it is "the precondition for being able to conduct the entire spectrum of defensive and offensive operations”.

THE CHALLENGES OF UNDERWATER DOMINATION

Regarding the underwater domain, Leonardo's CEO recalled that "the perimeter of intervention to guarantee safety has expanded, reaching unprecedented sea depths, which also require systems that do not exist today". Three scenarios to deal with according to Alessandro Profumo. “Underwater threats involving critical underwater infrastructure such as pipelines and cables; the danger that the diver poses for the marine surface and for everything that operates there; the scenario in which the mainland itself can become the target of underwater attacks, first of all the ports, the attack on the base of Sevastopol demonstrates that the danger is present”, remarked Profumo. Therefore the "strategic and technological challenges will require more and more integration of different skills, as a company that operates in the multi-domain, Leonardo is the natural system integrator in the underwater sector" concluded Profumo.

MUSUMECI: "THE FINANCING OF THE DIVE CENTER DEMONSTRATES ATTENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT"

Finally “The diver is a challenge, in a country like ours which was formed in the sea and with the sea, which must lead us to make up for so much lost time, choices have to be made. Only 20% of the underwater world is known, national and international challenges impose choices based on responsibility” explained the Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies Nello Musumeci.

“Serious and responsible political choices are needed to face national and international challenges. Too many entities – Musumeci recalled – compete on this matter and it is never a good thing when they are unable to dialogue with each other". This is why the dicastery for the sea was born with a function of coordination and planning between at least eight ministries which directly contribute to forming the sea economy system but which are unable to dialogue with each other".

There is also a need for coordination between the old rules and the new ones which must regulate the world of diving, Minister Musumeci pointed out. “We must also have the ambition to be first in the sectors that compete for us. The funding of the diving center in the 2023 budget law is a sign that the Meloni government is open to this challenge. There is a need to legislate and deliberate”.

"Italy counts in the world only if it counts in the Mediterranean" concluded the minister.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-serve-unauthority-sul-traffico-subacqueo/ on Mon, 27 Mar 2023 12:25:50 +0000.