Aero Sekur won a project by the MOD to develop UAVs. Could you describe your goals in this segment?

Aero Sekur is a company that primarily works with fabrics, making it not a traditional aeronautical company. Our goal is to develop our own UAV using flexible materials. The only other aircraft that can be made with these materials are airships. Our aim is to develop a new generation of high-altitude airships, including the Stratobus project that we are collaborating on with Thales in France, as well as our own stratospheric airship, the LTA. We rely on tough, ruggedized aircraft that can be made with parafoil, which is crash-proof. Furthermore, we believe that we must also use hydrogen instead of helium, given that helium is costly. We also need new generation solar cells to achieve endurance at high altitude.

How does self-funding impact your operations?

Self-funding our development process is a real problem. We are trying to involve national defense authorities, especially for defense R&D. There are goals to better support SMEs in terms of international activity and the development of new technologies.

Italy seems to be outsourcing services much more than in previous years. Do you see this trend increasing?

Outsourcing services in Italy is a back and forth trend. Although there is still a strong interest in keeping the maintenance sector local, there are instances where outsourcing is preferred. For example, the Italian Navy is working with the Ministry of Defense for ship decommissioning, which is a very interesting part of the market that we want to be involved in.

Could you speak of the distinct capabilities of Italian regions?

We have five facilities in Italy, located in Aprilia, Liguria, Piedmont, Campania, and one in the USA in Pensacola, Florida. In Lazio, we take advantage of the Fiumicino airport, where we work on civilian aircraft slides and rafts that come off aircraft. Our operations in Caselle (Piedmont) are largely due to the presence of Thales Alenia Space and the Torino Politecnico, and the segment we are most interested in is exploration and humans in space. We make NBCR filtration and conditioning systems, NBCR protection devices, and we also endeavor for agriculture in space. We found other colleagues in Liguria who were working on the same area of interest. Lastly, we chose Campania because it is a prime location for manufacturing. We are currently looking towards Apulia and Calabria as we are interested in accessing a small airport.

Aero Sekur has a strong interest in agrospace. Where does this stem from?

Our belief is that we can grow better food if we grow Martian food. Agrospace needs specialized infrastructure to deliver products, and Aero Sekur comes into the equation with our lightweight, innovative inflatable structures for cultivation and advanced filtration and environment regulation systems that create and maintain an Earth-like environment.