La Spezia, 30 September 2025 – Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, visited the NATO Science and Technology Organization’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (STO CMRE) this week in La Spezia, Italy, in a high-level engagement focused on strengthening NATO’s maritime resilience, technological innovation, and climate security adaptation.
The visit took place following Admiral Cavo Dragone’s participation to SEAFUTURE2025, where he delivered a keynote speech urging NATO and its partners to rethink traditional defence paradigms in light of emerging threats, particularly in the underwater and maritime domains. He emphasized the importance of investing in research and development to scale innovative solutions faster and called for stronger integration of military, scientific, and commercial expertise—especially from small and medium enterprises.
At CMRE, Admiral Cavo Dragone addressed participants of the NATO Climate Change and Security Course, a timely forum exploring how environmental shifts—particularly in the Arctic—are reshaping defence and security strategies across the Alliance.
“Resilience is not abstract—it’s built in real places, by real people,” he said. “If we want to survive—from the youngest to the oldest generations—we must invest today for the challenges of tomorrow.”
A Hub for Maritime Science and Innovation
Hosted by CMRE Director Dr. Eric Pouliquen, the visit included technical briefings and facility tours showcasing the Centre’s work on some of NATO’s most pressing maritime challenges.
CMRE’s sea-going capabilities, such as the NATO Research Vessel (NRV) Alliance, support full-spectrum experimentation in both open-ocean and Arctic environments—making it a unique asset within the NATO Science and Technology Organization.
Dr. Pouliquen emphasized CMRE’s role in adapting NATO’s posture to a changing climate:
“The Arctic is becoming more strategically relevant. CMRE’s scientific expertise allows NATO to anticipate and respond to environmental factors that directly impact maritime operations and infrastructure.”
Enabling NATO’s Data-Centric and Multi-Domain Transformation
A key highlight of the visit was a panel discussion on CMRE’s contribution to NATO’s data-centric transformation. Decades of maritime data collection and acoustic modelling are now being integrated into NATO’s broader multi-domain operations—linking undersea data with air, space, and cyber layers to enable faster, more informed decision-making across the battlespace.
Admiral Cavo Dragone praised CMRE’s ability to bridge research and operations, and stressed the importance of accelerating innovation cycles across the Alliance.
“Emerging disruptive technologies are reshaping the underwater environment—faster, broader, and with global consequences,” he said. “We must dare to think differently.”
He reaffirmed NATO’s commitment—strengthened by recent increased defence investment agreed at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague—to scale up R&D and turn disruptive ideas into deployable capabilities.
Looking Ahead
Admiral Cavo Dragone’s visit to CMRE reaffirmed the strategic role of maritime science and technology in NATO’s future. It also reinforced the need for closer collaboration between military, scientific, and industrial actors in addressing challenges such as infrastructure protection, climate adaptation, and undersea domain awareness.
With modernization efforts underway across its labs, platforms, and digital systems, CMRE remains at the forefront of delivering science-driven innovation to support NATO’s operational edge at sea—and beyond.