🔎 The backbone of maritime security are information sharing systems. These are important for sharing information, such as suspicious vessels of interest, between agencies and states and to facilitate joint operations.

⚓ To get a better understanding of what happens in European seas, the European Union is developing two systems. The Common Information Sharing Environment, known as CISE connects civilian authorities, coast guards, fishery protection and police. The MARSUR system provides such services for the military and aims at sharing also classified, secrete information.

🌍 Yesterday I had the pleasure to attend an operational demonstration of MARSUR at the EUNAVFOR headquarters in Rome. Key insights:

➡️ MARSUR is based on an agreement between 22 European states, which includes the United Kingdom and Norway. Its development is led by the European Defense Agency (EDA) since 2005. The system has for long been under development and only recently gained full operational capability, now in a version known as MARSUR 3.

➡️ The event, attended by representatives of European navies, the European Commission and the European External Action Service, showcased how MARSUR can be used to share information and provides rules based threat detection capabilities. Most importantly it allows to gain a shared cross-European picture of the sea.

➡️ The system now also includes a direct link to the civilian CISE system and a link to NATO information sharing tools is under development.

➡️ The demonstration in Rome was an invitation to participating states to start using the system and connect to it, as only five states so far have a working link. The system will be particularly useful for joint operations by the European Naval Forces.

➡️ MARSUR continues, however, to be in development. For now it is too reliant on AIS data, does not directly integrated data from satellites or live feeds from cameras for instance. Working towards standardized European-wide risk profiles of vessels moreover would be an important step of the process. Ensuring that the CISE integration works well and information, including from databases such as customs, will be vital in making MARSUR effective.

⚓ The half day event also featured a review of the current EU maritime security system, included the Coordinated Maritime Presences, the Maritime Area of Interest Coordination Cell, and the three current naval operations Atalanta, Aspides and Irini.

🙏 I had the pleasure to address the audience in the opening panel and introduced some ideas of what the big upcoming challenges for MDA are, including the need to integrate critical maritime infrastructure protection, cyber security and ensuring better application interfaces between platforms.