Ex-Italian Navy officer launches maritime drone company

A former Italian Navy mine warfare officer has launched Sentiq Defence, a company based in Bordighera on Italy’s Ligurian coast that will supply navies, coast guards and port and energy operators with uncrewed boats, underwater surveillance sonars, remotely operated submersibles and aerial drones, the company announced on Oct. 13.

Sentiq starts out as an integrator, taking off-the-shelf platforms and sensors developed with international manufacturers, configuring them for each customer’s mission, and delivering them from Italy as complete systems with training and long-term support through a single point of contact. The company says it was set up to deal with a market split among many suppliers, each with its own interfaces, support arrangements and export rules, at a time when ports, energy companies, telecom operators and coast guards all need to watch large stretches of sea with limited people and money.

Its offering covers three domains. On the surface, the SQ family of modular uncrewed surface vessels can be configured for hydrographic survey, environmental monitoring, offshore inspection and persistent surveillance, as well as military tasks such as mine countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare. Under the water, Sentiq offers sonars that detect divers and other intruders, in a fixed version called SQ DDS, a portable SQ PDDS and a long-range SQ UDS, to protect ports, naval bases, coastlines and critical infrastructure, backed by inspection-class remotely operated vehicles. In the air, tactical drones extend the surveillance reach of the surface boats beyond the horizon.

The company was founded by Antonio J. Belfiore, a retired Italian Navy commander who specialized in mine warfare and served 25 years in national and international operational and staff posts. After leaving the service, he worked in business development and sales for defense and subsea technology companies in Denmark and the United Kingdom, set up his own strategy consultancy in 2025 and came up with the idea for Sentiq this year.

“I spent most of my career at sea, in mine warfare, and later training the people who do this job. I learned that technology rarely fails on its own: what fails is integration,” said Antonio J. Belfiore, founder and CEO of Sentiq Defence.

Protection of ports, undersea cables and pipelines has become a priority for European navies and infrastructure operators since the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up in 2022 and several Baltic Sea power and data cables were damaged in the years that followed, incidents that pushed governments to look for cheaper ways to keep watch on the seabed and coastal approaches.

Bordighera sits at the western end of the Ligurian coast, within reach of Italy’s naval and shipbuilding centers in Genoa and La Spezia, where the Italian Navy’s main base is located, and of the French technology hub at Sophia Antipolis and the French Navy’s base at Toulon. Sentiq’s growth plan has three steps: widening its partnerships with international technology suppliers, building an assembly, integration and test center in western Liguria, and developing training and long-term support in Italy for Italian and foreign customers.

Sentiq will make its first major public appearance at the EURONAVAL naval exhibition at Paris Nord Villepinte, which runs from Nov. 3 to 6.