Seven leading technology firms, with Indra at the forefront alongside SAES, UTEK, Aragon Photonics, Iqua Robotics, FYLA and Sateliot, collaborated in Paris on Wednesday to confront one of international security’s paramount vulnerabilities: the protection of the seabed.
At the Euronaval trade fair, senior industry executives ratified a strategic accord to develop the SIPRIS initiative, designed to grant Spain technological autonomy in the protection and continuous surveillance of underwater cables and critical infrastructure.
Indra will oversee ecosystem coordination and assume full system integration responsibility through its Seadef architecture and the sovereign AI platform IndraMind, augmented by unmanned aerial drone deployment.
Ana Belén Buendía, Indra’s naval director, framed Sipris as a direct response to the urgent need to monitor the underwater environment, a necessity for securing Europe’s technological sovereignty. She underscored that the alliance of leading Spanish firms will enable a comprehensive solution, positioning the national industry at the forefront of a sector undergoing strategic expansion.
Drones, Fibre Optics and Satellites: Protecting the Underwater Frontier
Complementary partners will deploy a multidisciplinary technological network to secure the marine environment. SAES will contribute its sensors and sonar processing for threat detection, while autonomous control will be shared between UTEK, responsible for surface unmanned vehicles (USV), and Iqua Robotics, focused on unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) for infrastructure inspection.
Aragon Photonics will handle anomaly detection via fibre optics, supported by FYLA’s underwater optical communications and Sateliot’s satellite coverage.
The alliance establishes a modular, scalable industrial ecosystem designed for the progressive integration of new players, technology centres, and SMEs within the sector.
The project will advance directly to field testing before market launch. This step represents a significant defence industry coup for Spain, entrusting the nation with a rare capability to protect its own underwater infrastructure.
