AIRSENSE SC2 validates its navigation capabilities at REPMUS 2026

The Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems (REPMUS) flight campaign took place from September 7 to 11, 2026, in Troia, Portugal. This marked the final in-flight validation activity for the first two phases of the AIRSENSE SC2 program, in which GMV has been involved since the SC1 phase. Once again, REPMUS brought together several NATO countries and reinforced its position as the largest testing exercise for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

GMV conducted the campaign using the TARSIS platform, focusing on evaluating the AIRSENSE payload under operational conditions representative of maritime, coastal, and land environments. The project successfully demonstrated the performance of the visual navigation sensors, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and inertial systems. It also confirmed stable image capture, reliable communications, sensor synchronization, the ability to conduct long-range beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights, and the collection of high-quality datasets essential for algorithm development and validation. The visual navigation algorithms ran satisfactorily in real time onboard the aircraft.

The campaign demonstrated the robustness of the AIRSENSE hardware architecture and integrated navigation software under representative operational conditions. All planned flight profiles were completed, along with additional trajectories to expand the scope of operational evaluation and data collection.