Against the backdrop of the emergence of new hybrid threats – manipulation of information space and attacks on critical infrastructures, for example – the two-year ALPHA project focuses on finding answers to various questions related to hybrid threats and how diverse technologies could be applied for integrated situational awareness, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), drones, satellite technologies and 5G cybersecurity.

Funded by Business Finland, the Finnish government organization for innovation funding, the project consortium is composed of 14 stakeholders from the Finnish public safety community such as enterprises or research and user organisations, among others. 

Airbus, as a member of the consortium, is contributing its expertise to the project and presented innovative solutions to hybrid threats at a demonstration of the ALPHA research project in Ylivieska, Finland, in early November.

Demonstrations at Ylivieska included solutions for data collection, integration and analysis - the three steps involved in transforming real-world phenomena into actionable information. Airbus demonstrated Mission Critical Internet of Things (MC IoT) concept and OneAtlas service for satellite data. In mission-critical field operations, MC IoT enables real-time data collection using a variety of wearable and environmental sensors, including video and drones. The data can be further processed to improve situational awareness and improve the safety of first responders in difficult and dangerous field operations.

Integrating OneAtlas satellite imagery from Airbus with other data sources can further enrich the understanding of an evolving threat landscape. OneAtlas is a digital platform that provides flexible and easy access to premium satellite imagery, geospatial analytics and industry-specific insights. OneAtlas gives access to a suite of Earth Observation data, including Airbus’ most advanced 30 cm resolution imagery from the two identical Pléiades Neo satellites.

“Airbus is involved with its customers in the transition towards mission-critical broadband services, including spearheading projects in France and Finland. In these customer projects, a technological foundation is created that enables the development of future mission-critical solutions to improve both the efficiency of public safety operations and the safety and security of first responders and citizens. Research projects like ALPHA offer Airbus a great opportunity to work together with world-class researchers, user organisations and other companies, and build innovations and new concepts for future needs”, explains Tapio Savunen, Strategic Marketing Director for Secure Land Communications at Airbus.

In 2024, the ALPHA project will focus on research questions that address the topics related to the recognition of hybrid threats and what different data sources could be used to improve situational awareness. For example, how to use social media to increase knowledge and also how data could be combined and integrated into one common situational picture. User organizations will play a key role and they will be engaged in this research through user interviews.

The project will organize one additional demo event for user organizations next year, where the results of the project will be demonstrated as well as how integrated situational awareness works in practice.