NATO-STO
| Registered office | Belgium - Brussels |
|---|---|
| Other branches | Paris (FR), La Spezia (IT) |
| Industries | Research and Development |
| Categories | research, science, surveillance, arms, border fortification |
| Sources | Unspecified |
| Website | https://www.sto.nato.int/Pages/default.aspx |
About the company
The NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO), with its headquarter in Brussels, is NATO's central institution for technology monitoring and development. It states that it employs 6,000 scientists and is part of a “network” of 200,000 experts in the member and partner countries. It has separate working groups for vehicle technology, information systems and sensors, among others. The STO has a strong focus on maritime armaments and underwater systems, and related activities are coordinated from its "Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation" in La Spezia, Italy.
Contribution to the EU border regime
The NATO-STO maritime research center was involved in the EU research project SECRONIC, which was intended to improve the "security" of ports by joining all available information about shipping traffic. The ARESIBO project led by Airbus, in which the STO was also involved (along with Tekever and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), was focusing specifically on “border security and surveillance”. It was investigated how information, e.g. from satellite monitoring, can be made available to operatives on site using "augmented reality". Other EU research projects with the participation of the NATO STO dealt more generally with robotics and maritime surveillance; this certainly allowed the STO to expand its own contacts in the relevant research field, especially at universities.
Added: Jan. 11, 2024
Last update: Jan. 28, 2024, 12:03 p.m.