Submarine cable: NATO drone boats to provide protection
Submarine cables in the Baltic Sea have recently been repeatedly damaged due to suspected sabotage. NATO is now launching a protection program.
Drone boats similar to this one – here at a military show in Singapore – could be patrolling the Baltic Sea in a few weeks' time.
(Image: shutterstock/Maxene Huiyu)
NATO is responding to the increasing damage to submarine cables in the Baltic Sea with an initiative: among other things, unmanned boats are to make the affected waters safer, even in autonomous operation. Baltric Sentry is the name of the project with which several NATO member states want to counter sabotage attempts with a "robust and decisive response".
As French Admiral Pierre Vandier, Commander-in-Chief of NATO's Allied Command Transformation, announced according to the portal "The War Zone", the drone boats, known as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), are to begin operations in a few weeks' time. The venture is "an operational experiment in response to an operational problem", the admiral added.
No information yet on USV make
The aim is to create a comprehensive surveillance network that combines video, radar data and evaluation systems. The aim is to provide the various stakeholders, "whether industry, coastguard or police", with faster information for further measures, explained Vandier.
According to Vandier, the exact make of the UPSs has not yet been determined. The USVs will initially still be under human control, but it is planned that they will later operate "with greater autonomy". They will complement the existing Baltric Sentry operation, which includes several surface vessels and reconnaissance aircraft.
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Supporters of the initiative include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. The UK is already pursuing the approach of using AI to combat acts of sabotage. Operation Nordic Warden will use AI to analyze data from a range of sources, such as the ships' Automatic Identification System (AIS), to calculate the risk of detected ships entering "areas of interest".
After a data cable between Finland and Germany and one between Sweden and Lithuania were presumably damaged by a Chinese ship at the end of November, four submarine cables off the coast of Finland failed over the Christmas period.
(nen)
