Uncrewed systems and associated technologies are being put through their paces in Germany at SeaSEC’s 2026 Challenge Weeks.
The event, this year hosted by the Rostock Institute for Ocean Technologies (RIOT), is organised by Netherlands-based body the Seabed Security Experimentation Centre (SeaSEC).
SeaSEC seeks to accelerate the capabilities and adoption of maritime uncrewed and autonomous solutions, with an immediate focus on protecting critical subsea infrastructure (CUI). It is part of the Northern Naval Capability Cooperation, a joint alliance of six Ministries of Defence (Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden).
This is the second year that SeaSEC has staged a Challenge Weeks event: last year’s iteration was staged at the organisation’s maritime testing grounds off the coast of Scheveningen, Netherlands.
This year the event, dubbed DATA2SEA, has switched to Rostock and is being supported by the German Navy; it began on Monday and runs until April 24. Three new challenges (numbered 4-6) have been staged, set to be tackled by six different consortia of industry participants.
As per SeaSEC: “The challenges feature sea trials to evaluate and assess solutions offered by the industry to enhance situational awareness and understanding at sea and in a harbour environment.
“The mission of the industry is to build an accurate and near-real-time maritime situational picture of above and underwater threats to Critical Underwater Infrastructure (CUI).
“DATA2SEA… includes three challenges and focuses primarily on sensor data fusion to contribute to a layered, consolidated operational picture.”
The organisation added: “Everyone is talking about CUI and how to protect our Infrastructure physically. But what about the data we collect with our systems, the system data of our Infrastructure and our vehicles? Are they secure enough? Can they be used against us when they fall into the wrong hands?
“During the 2026 SeaSEC Challenge Weeks DATA2SEA we ask industry to show us their solutions for protection of CUI with a secure command-and-control integration.”
Challenge 4, being staged near Rosenort, focuses on pipeline protection. The three consortia involved are tasked with locating, identifying, tracking and reporting any anomaly on or close to a cable or pipeline.
Challenge 5, near Nienhagen, has an offshore platform protection theme: four consortia are being asked to locate, identify, track and report any anomaly on or close to an offshore platform and its restricted zone.
Challenge 6, the harbour protection task, has two sites: the Sportschule Warnemünde and inside the Rostock Naval Base. Two consortia must find, identify, track and report all traffic and intruders in a harbour entrance.
Earlier this year Navy Leaders and SeaSEC together staged a Harbour Protection Challenge Day ahead of our Navy Tech & Seabed Defence 2026 conferences in Gothenburg, Sweden.
- You can read more details about DATA2SEA on the SeaSEC website