European VIP’s Line Up for UDT 2022 Conference

Defense leaders from European government and military forces will lead discussions at UDT 2022, when the undersea defense community reunites in Rotterdam on 7-9 June.

Within the overarching theme of The Grey Zone, speakers from across Europe’s naval forces and government ministries will be joined by industry partners and think tank representatives to discuss the six conference pillars of Platform Design, Sensors & Processing, Weapons & Countermeasures, Uncrewed, Remotely Piloted & Autonomous Systems, Operational Drivers & Imperatives and Artificial Intelligence & Big Data.  

Rear Admiral Huub Hulsker, Deputy Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy

The Day one keynote panel will be delivered by Rear Admiral Huub Hulsker, Deputy Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy, who will be joined by Mr. Vasco Pizzinato, Senior Combat Officer – NFS Program Division, OCCAR; and Rear Admiral (Ret.) Jon Pentreath, Senior Land and Naval Adviser for Clarion Defense and Security. 

Day two’s keynote panel discussion will bring together Captain Eric Toebast, NL MCM Service of the Royal Netherlands Navy, with Dr Leendert Dorst, Deputy Hydrographer of the Royal Netherlands Navy; Commander Sander Cool, Commanding Officer of the Defense Diving Group; Lt. Commander Martin Streefland, DHC/7SQN, Royal Netherlands Navy; and Commander Pieterbas Peters, Commander of ME Submarines, also of the Royal Netherlands Navy. 

On the morning of Thursday 9 June, the final keynote speech will be delivered by Matt Smith, Director of Analysis at Shephard Media. Following his address, he will moderate a panel which will include Vice Admiral (Retd.) Kari Takanen, Former Commander and Chief of Defense Command, Finnish Navy; and Captain David Wilkinson, Naval Adviser for Clarion Defense and Security. 

Other highlights from the conference include ‘Future MCM in combination with old fashion MCM: Augmenting Autonomous Systems’ from Dr Alain Maguer, Engineering and IT Department Head, NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), and Commander Jonas Forsmark, Policy and Plans Department, Swedish Armed Forces HQ; and ‘ROVs for submarines: Systems of systems integration for ROV and AUV operations’ from Nils Størkersen, Director of Research, Division for Maritime Systems, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and Commander Tobias Söderblom, Head of Underwater Materiel Section, Swedish Naval Staff.  

Elsewhere, key speakers from across the three day program include Wenche Oxholm, Senior Scientist, Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, who will present on ‘Anti-Submarine Warfare - Measures of Performance’; Tim Vickery, Senior Principal Advisor at the UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), who will speak on ‘Directed Energy Weapons for Submarine Defense’; Chris Parnell, Technical Partner, Platform Systems Division, Dstl, on ‘Design Of Submarine Command And Control’; and Ove Kent Hagen and Kristoffer Engedal Andreassen from the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI), who will present on ‘Terrain Navigation Techniques for AUV MCM Operations’ and ‘Simulations Of ASW Operations In The Littoral Zone’, respectively.  

To see the full conference agenda and register to attend UDT 2022 click here.