Teledyne Advances Multi-Sensor Underwater Infrastructure Monitoring at SeaSEC DATA2SEA 2026

Teledyne Marine has supported real-time multi-sensor integration trials for monitoring critical underwater infrastructure during the 2026 SeaSEC Challenge Weeks DATA2SEA programme, hosted by the Rostock Institute for Ocean Technologies in collaboration with the German Navy. The exercise, conducted in the Baltic Sea's Mecklenburg Bight and at facilities in Rostock, brought together technology providers, infrastructure operators, and research partners to evaluate how heterogeneous sensing systems can be fused and interpreted in near real-time across subsea and surface domains.

 

Strategic Significance of the DATA2SEA Programme

 

The DATA2SEA programme is structured around the increasing operational requirement to monitor critical underwater infrastructure such as subsea cables, pipelines, and offshore energy assets in a security environment that has become significantly more challenging. The Baltic Sea has become a focal point for concern about subsea infrastructure resilience following high-profile incidents involving cables and pipelines in the region. The exercise reflects a deliberate move away from assessing standalone sensor performance toward evaluating coordinated sensing and data fusion architectures, which align with how operational monitoring will need to function in real deployments. The collaboration with the German Navy underlines the dual-use nature of the technology being trialled, with civilian infrastructure monitoring and military situational awareness drawing on the same sensor and data fusion stack.

 

Teledyne's Role and Sensor Suite

 

Teledyne Marine, working alongside Teledyne FLIR, deployed a combined suite of acoustic, sonar, and imaging technologies across multiple operational scenarios. The contribution was structured around several collaborative consortiums rather than as a standalone supplier, reflecting the multi-vendor nature of contemporary integrated sensing programmes. Project lead Morten Bernsdorf has framed the company's involvement as a demonstration of how integrated sensing can enhance maritime situational awareness at scale, while providing a platform for industry partners to address shared challenges and showcase real-world capability. The framing aligns with the broader direction of travel in maritime sensing, where individual sensor performance matters less than the ability to combine outputs into a coherent operational picture.

 

Platform-Focused Trials and Acoustic Monitoring

 

Platform-focused trials made extensive use of passive acoustic monitoring nodes to provide continuous observation of the underwater soundscape and to detect anomalous activity. Passive acoustic monitoring is particularly relevant to subsea infrastructure protection because it can detect vessel signatures, mechanical sounds, and other acoustic anomalies over long distances without requiring active emissions. The PAM nodes were complemented by seabed-mounted SeaBat F50 forward-looking sonars, which provided real-time visualisation, inspection, and classification of detected events. The combination of passive listening and active forward-looking sonar gives operators the ability to detect anomalies and then visually classify them, addressing the long-standing challenge of distinguishing genuine threats from routine activity in busy maritime environments.

 

Mobile Sensing Through Autonomous Platforms

 

A mobile sensing component was added through collaboration with Stormborn, with an unmanned surface vessel deployed carrying a PAM node alongside SeaBat F50 and SeaBat T51 multibeam imaging sonars. This configuration enabled flexible area-wide surveying of both the seabed and the water column, demonstrating how autonomous platforms can extend the spatial coverage of integrated sensing networks. Mobile sensing is particularly valuable for critical underwater infrastructure monitoring because static sensors alone struggle to maintain coverage over long pipeline routes or extensive cable corridors. The use of a USV equipped with a layered acoustic and imaging payload illustrates how the convergence of autonomy and high-end sensing is reshaping operational concepts for subsea security and inspection.

 

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Layered Surveillance in Harbour Environments

 

Harbour-based trials extended the integration concept into the more challenging conditions found in port environments. Seabed-installed PAM systems were used to detect and localise underwater activity, including the movement of divers and robotic platforms. Rather than transmitting raw data in real time, the systems provided bearings indicating unusual underwater acoustic activity, which were then correlated through a command and control system with radar and AIS tracks to determine whether contacts were known commercial activity or potential threats. The architecture demonstrates how acoustic data, surface vessel data, and air-domain data can be fused to support faster and more accurate threat assessment, which is increasingly important for ports operating under elevated security expectations.

 

Combined Above- and Below-Water Monitoring

 

Surface observations were supported by thermal imaging systems, contributing to a combined above- and below-water dataset for enhanced situational awareness. Forward-looking sonar provided real-time visualisation of subsurface conditions, while land-based infrared imaging systems enabled wide-area monitoring of surface activity. The result was an integrated framework spanning seabed, water column, surface, and shore-based sensing, all feeding into a fused operational picture. That kind of multi-domain integration represents the operational standard toward which both civilian critical infrastructure operators and naval forces are moving, particularly in regions where subsea infrastructure is exposed to high traffic densities and elevated security risk.

 

Operational Significance for Critical Underwater Infrastructure

 

The trials are commercially and strategically significant because they map directly onto the operational realities now facing operators of subsea cables, pipelines, and offshore energy infrastructure. The growing recognition that subsea assets cannot be defended by periodic inspection alone has accelerated demand for persistent monitoring solutions that combine multiple sensing modalities with autonomous platforms and integrated command and control. Demonstrating these architectures in realistic Baltic Sea conditions provides operators, defence authorities, and technology suppliers with a concrete reference point for how next-generation infrastructure protection systems can be designed and delivered.

 

SeaSEC Initiative and Ecosystem Development

 

The SeaSEC initiative was established in December 2023 to bring together technology providers, infrastructure operators, public authorities, industry, and research partners in realistic maritime test environments. Its DATA2SEA programme provides a structured venue for advancing multi-sensor integration, data fusion methodologies, and scalable approaches to subsea monitoring across scientific and operational contexts. The initiative reflects a broader pattern in which European countries are increasingly investing in collaborative testbeds for maritime security and infrastructure resilience, recognising that no single supplier or operator can address the challenge of subsea monitoring in isolation.

 

Implications for the Wider Sensing and Maritime Security Markets

 

The Teledyne contribution at DATA2SEA 2026 reflects a maturing market for integrated underwater sensing, in which suppliers are increasingly judged on their ability to operate within multi-vendor architectures rather than purely on standalone product performance. As demand for critical underwater infrastructure monitoring grows across both civilian and defence applications, providers who can demonstrate proven integration with passive acoustic monitoring, forward-looking sonar, multibeam imaging, autonomous platforms, and command and control systems are likely to be better positioned to win operational contracts. For ports, offshore energy operators, and subsea cable owners, the trial results provide useful evidence that the integrated sensing architectures needed for persistent infrastructure protection are now operationally feasible at scale, rather than confined to research environments.