SEAWINGS is a defence project funded under the European Defence Fund, which aims to develop wing-in-ground vehicles designed to operate in the sea/air interface, increase strategic preparedness and perform defence-related operations and missions in Europe. These vehicles can provide key advantages for ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) activities such as border monitoring, surveillance, and maritime search and rescue due to a unique set of characteristics (e.g. speed and energy efficiency, high payloads, reduced costs, long-range, stealthy, etc.).

A combination of basic and applied research activities has been implemented to establish specifications for WIG vehicles to be successfully operated as drones. Moreover, close interactions with the potential end-users have been conducted in order to identify the most appropriate operational scenarios for the employment of the SEAWINGS solution. Research and development are continuous and incremental, always converting the outcomes of field investigations into the development of upgrades until the SEAWING platform reaches TRL-5.

The model will be assessed in a representative environment. SEAWINGS will perform partial tests in real environments through the use of different prototypes. The aim is to assess the feasibility of the solution, and not a prototype testing leading to the commercialization of a final product.