NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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The Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) is a NATO-owned high-tech research facility that organizes and conducts scientific research and technology development, centered on the maritime domain. CMRE's daily mission embodies the three components of Smart Defence: specialisation, prioritisation, and cooperation.

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Collaboration with scientific, academic, corporate and military entities reduces development costs for individual member nations and industries while providing specialised world class scientific research, engineering capabilities, and facilities.

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Located in La Spezia, Italy, CMRE operates the only collectively NATO-owned research vessels at sea: the Coastal Research Vessel (CRV) Leonardo and the NATO Research Vessel (NRV) Alliance. One of the world's quietest ships in its class, the 93-metre NRV Alliance is used for many scientific missions, including acoustic research.

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Scientists and researchers have frequent opportunities for at-sea experimentation and field testing. Year-round access onboard the ship encourages cooperation among top scientists and engineers from NATO's member nations.

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NRV Alliance supports CMRE's focus on maritime innovation and technology in several areas including; maritime security (countering piracy and terrorism), mine countermeasures, environmental knowledge and operational effectiveness, and anti-submarine warfare.

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The Alliance participates in joint NATO navy exercises, such as the Proud Manta series, the largest annual anti-submarine warfare exercise in the world.

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NRV Alliance has a 400 square metre open deck work area and 500 cubic metres of storage. The vessel is also equipped with winches and other deck handling gear for deploying and towing the systems and instrumentation needed for acoustic and oceanographic research.

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One of the Centre's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) trails a long-range tactical pager (used for underwater communications) and a towed array receiver (used for underwater object detection). One of CMRE's many valuable scientific and research assets is a sophisticated AUV called Ocean Explorer.

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CMRE uses fixed sources, such as the 'deployable multistatic sonar' and oceanographic buoys, to study how sound spreads at sea. To better understand human-made underwater sounds and how they interact with marine life, CMRE and NRV Alliance conduct the Marine Mammal Risk Mitigation Programme to help detect and study marine mammals.