Elistair and the future of port security: tethered drones as part of the BACK-up for the SMAUG project

 

The French have combined backup and "tethered" drones

The French company Elistair, known for its innovative solutions in the field of tethered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), participated in the European SMAUG (Smart Maritime Autonomous Unmanned Guardian) project aimed at strengthening monitoring and protection of vulnerable ports and marine areas. As part of this initiative, Elistair is integrating its tethered drone into an unmanned boat (BEC), providing continuous monitoring of the port infrastructure and the water area.

European ports are facing increasing challenges in the form of increasingly sophisticated methods of illegal entry, from invisible underwater vehicles to sabotage divers. To counter these threats, the SMAUG project combines five key technologies: hydrophones, sonars, underwater swarms of drones, incoming vessel hull scanners, and tethered drones from Elistair. This comprehensive approach allows us to cover all levels of possible threats — underwater, surface and air.

Tethered drones play a special role in the system, which can stay in the air indefinitely due to stable power supply via cable. They provide constant video surveillance, data transmission and communication, which is especially important for rapid response. The integration of such UAVs into the mobile BACK platform significantly expands the range of the system and increases its autonomy.

The collected data from all sensors is processed using artificial intelligence, which can detect signs of explosives, illegal goods, or anomalies in the behavior of objects. This makes the SMAUG system one of the most advanced in the world for ensuring security in ports and offshore facilities.

Given the growing threats from unmanned technologies and other modern means, the approach used in the SMAUG project can become an important example for other countries, including Russia, that are interested in protecting their coastal and port infrastructure. Learning from experience and adapting such technologies is the task of the coming years.