EU's Panoptis unmanned maritime platform completes test

The European Panoptis unmanned maritime surveillance platform took part in sea trials near Greece in late May 2026. (ETME)

The European Panoptis unmanned semi-fixed sea platform for maritime surveillance (USSPS), being built by Salamis Shipyard in Greece, has successfully completed site acceptance tests (SAT) during a sea trial in late May 2026.

The Panoptis USSPS is a pan-European project funded under the EU's European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) 2020. It costs EUR19.5 million (USD22.5 million), with a maximum EU contribution of EUR12.8 million. This runs for 42 months, covering study, design, prototyping, and testing.

Greek engineering company EMTE is leading a consortium of 16 companies from 7 different EU countries on the project. Other participants are Applied Intelligence Analytics Limited (Ireland), Naval Group SA, Prolexia SARL, Techlam SAS (France), Multimedia Workshop PLC (Bulgaria), Navantia S.A., Sener Aeroespacial S.A, Tecnobit SLU, Unmanned Teknologies Applications S.L (Spain), CyRIC-Cyprus Research and Innovation Center, SignalGeneriX Limited (Cyprus), SMST Designer & Constructors B.V., Stichting Maritiem Research Instituut Nederland (Netherlands), along with Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas.

Dimitrios Filiagkos, director of the Greek Ministry of National Defence's (MND's) Directorate for Defence Investments and Technological Research (DDITR), said on social media in late May that “the USSPS purpose is to enhance maritime situational awareness, enable network-centric surveillance, and support the development of advanced AI-enabled defence capabilities.”

ETME said on social media in late May that the tests included: advanced remote surveillance operations via Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (C5ISTAR) systems; real-time health & environmental monitoring through the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS); and cooperation with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assets, extending situational awareness beyond the platform itself.