EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq today welcomed the announcement made by the Swiss government that Switzerland is going to participate in its first EDA project under the ‘Framework for Cooperation’ agreed with the Swiss ministry of Defence in 2012. The research project in question deals with the Protection of Autonomous Systems against Enemy Interference (PASEI). Germany, as the lead nation, as well as Finland and Austria are also participating.
“I very much welcome that Switzerland, beyond its current involvement in different EDA activities of common interest, has decided to make full use of the ‘Framework for Cooperation’ that has been set up with the EDA in 2012 by participating in its first concrete cooperation project. The PASEI project, which deals with the protection of autonomous systems against enemy interference, is an important topic on which European cooperation makes sense, even beyond EU borders. The Agency looks forward to cooperating with the Swiss government and industry on this interesting project”, Mr Domecq stated. He also expressed the hope that Switzerland will participate in more EDA projects in the future.
The aim of the PASEI project is to carry out a 1-year study to identify the potential types of enemy interference with autonomous and semi-autonomous unmanned mobile systems and the disturbing or disrupting impact they can have on the systems’ military tasks (including remote controlled operations). Based on this identification work, the study should also propose methods to detect enemy interference and recommend possible technical countermeasures to avoid and mitigate the risks of interference. In a next phase, the project could be followed up by the development of a technical demonstrator applying the recommended techniques to protect against hostile takeovers of current or future unmanned systems.