On November 15 and 17, 2022 the NESTOR LTU Pilot was organized by the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania (SBGS LT) and the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA). The purpose of the trial was to test NESTOR platform and technologies to determine if they work properly and can detect and observe illegal activities/offenders across the state border. The NESTOR technologies were successfully trialed, and their effectiveness and reliability were demonstrated along the Russia-Lithuania border.
The Lithuanian Maritime border Trial was the first of the three trials that are planned for NESTOR and CERTH, KEMEA, ELI, DCD, OCEANscan, NARDA, MILTECH and STWS were the partners that technically supervised it. Hellenic Police, as the Project Coordinator was also there, along with executives from the Border Guard Service of Lithuania.
The two-days trial was fully fundamental to the NESTOR’s development. Moreover, during the trials, checks and technical tests of the project’s equipment and technologies were carried out. In parallel, innovative technologies such as RF sensors, thermal and day cameras as well as Tethered Drone in combination with the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV), developed their capabilities in the field through the BC3i NESTOR platform [Command Control and Coordination intelligence (BC3i) system] with the outcome of the test being rated as very positive by the participants. In more detail, during the test, the early warning system developed throughout the project and the technical equipment developed to detect and recognize objects underwater, on water, in the air, and on land were also tested. Three scenarios were carried out, during which the aim was to demonstrate how the system developed by the partners of the NESTOR project can help service officials to record violations of illegal migration or the transportation of contraband across the external border of the Republic of Lithuania and the European Union by land, air and waterways.
A number of advanced technologies were integrated and tested during the Lithuanian trial. In particular:
- Radio frequency monitoring and localization system for identification of radio signals.
- Components for analysis of live video streams.
- Unmanned vehicles that are controlled from the NESTOR Command and Coordination center for either monitoring the underwater space (unmanned underwater drones) or performing aerial surveillance of a territory (tethered drones).
- The Command and Coordination Center system that integrates the monitoring, control, analysis and decision support modules through an interoperability layer, and provides a unique collaborative environment for planning and conducting operations using text messaging, map board and video conferencing.
The Lithuanian trial sets a major milestone for the project as it proved that the challenging technical integration tasks of diverse technologies under the same operational platform that can successfully operate in real-word setting is possible. The following two trials that are planned for NESTOR will build on the experience gained and the lessons learnt from the Lithuanian trial.
The NESTOR system successfully increased the awareness of the situation at the state border. The authorities and the relevant end users identified technologies and applications that could be used in the future in border surveillance.
Learn more after reading ELI‘s article about the Lithuanian use case here.
