SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• Navantia Sistemas’ Command and Control System for export, the CATIZ CMS, thus expands its defense capability against submarine threats
• This integration allows to Navantia Sistemas and SAES offering to its customers a solution which puts them on the vanguard in submarine warfare systems

NAVANTIA Sistemas and SAES have agreed to join their forces in order to integrate two of their stellar products: the CATIZ Combat Management System from NAVANTIA and the ROASW Antisubmarine Defense System from SAES. This collaboration, the result of the strategy of NAVANTIA of creating a powerful industrial complex which allows our defense industry to compete more efficiently on the international market, has culminated with an exhibition of the integration of NAVANTIA’s CMS and SAES’ ROASW (Remote Operations Antisubmarine Warfare), which took place on March 1st, 2016 at the facilities which NAVANTIA Sistemas has in San Fernando, Cadiz.

The exhibition involved an exercise for detecting, locating, following up and neutralizing a submarine threat. NAVANTIA Sistemas produced for the exhibition a new qualified version of the CATIZ CMS, able to supply to the Tactical Communications (TACO) all the capabilities required for carrying out an ASW mission, as well as the NAVANTIA Simulation System, which made possible to have the simulated scenario used in the exercise, and the CATIZ’s LBTS (Land Based Test Site), used during the whole test stage and the scenario of the final demo. For its part, SAES supplied a ROASW demonstrator, made up by the system’s real software and the antenna, the sonobuoys, and the helicopter.

This exercise was attended by Mr. Alfredo Gordo, Head of NAVANTIA Sistemas and SAES’s Chairman, and of Mr. Antonio Cordero, SAES’ Director, as well as of a large group of engineers from both companies. Also was present the Head of the Tactical Programs Center (CPT) of the Spanish Navy, Captain Mr. Álvaro de Agustín Vázquez, as well as a large number of officers and NCOs from the CTP, who had been invited as observers. During the whole integration process, the teams of engineers from both companies worked in total coordination for implementing the interface between both systems, from the definition of the integration to the final integration tests stage, and which culminated with the exercise carried out in the final demonstration.

Integration in two steps

The integration was carried out in two steps: The first from November 2014 to February 2015, during which the CATIZ CMS was integrated into the ROASW’s surface component, while the second step took place from October 2015 to February 2016. In a similar way was developed the integrated simulation capability of both systems, which made possible to perform the ASW exercise of the demonstration.

CATIZ CMS is NAVANTIA’s Command and Control system for new programs and for the modernization of surface vessels of the Navies from all over the world, although it is mostly focused on the Asian, Latin American and Middle East markets. Totally based on the COTS technology and the result of the experience purchased by NAVANTIA Sistemas in the CDS’ developments for the F100 and F105 class frigates, and of the SCOMBA installed on the Juan Carlos I, on the Cantabria and on the BAM series, the CATIZ CMS provides the capability of carrying out a large number of missions, both in peacetime and in wartime. During the last few years, the CATIZ CMS has increased its functionality with the integration of SAM and SSM missiles, as well as with a number of sensors from Spanish and European companies, which are joined now by the Spanish company SAES, expanding the antisubmarine warfare capabilities of NAVANTIA’s Command and Control System for export.

The ROASW System, installed on the five Visby-class Swedish corvettes and on its HKP-15 helicopters defines a new operating solution in antisubmarine warfare missions thanks to the coordinated use of two items, one which is remote and elevated (ROASW-AS or Airborne Segment) which is installed on manned or unmanned aerial vehicles, and another installed on surface platforms (ROASW-SS or Surface Segment), making it possible for small vessels an active and efficient participation in complex ASW missions. The ROASW system implements two different ways of line of sight (LOS) communication: Surface To Surface, for exchanging tactical and intelligence information with other ROASW-AS surface platform, and Surface to Air, for communicating with a ROASW-AS airborne platform. Furthermore, it allows communication through satellites with faraway platforms. All these communication modes allow the ROASW system to participate in a Network Centric Warfare (NCW).

About NAVANTIA

NAVANTIA constitutes a world reference in the design, construction and integration of warships with a high-technological content, as well as ship repairs and upgrades. Besides, its activity lines include the design and manufacturing of combat and command and control systems, integrated platform management systems, firing control systems, propulsion engines and the Life Cycle Support for all its products. Although its main activity is in the naval field, NAVANTIA also designs and manufactures systems for the Army and the Air Force.

NAVANTIA belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, shareholding participations, with a workforce of around 73,000 professionals in majority 2014; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further ten companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies