NATO to create drone fleet to protect cables in Baltic and Mediterranean Seas
Photo: Pierre Vandier, NATO's Commander for Concepts and Transformation (Getty Images)
NATO has begun planning to create its fleet of unmanned boats to protect critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, as Pierre Vandier, NATO's Commander for Concepts and Transformation, says in an interview with Defense News.
After a series of damages to submarine cables in European waters over the past year (the most recent occurred just a few weeks ago), senior NATO officials began developing a concept that would allow the alliance to have constant surveillance above and below the water.
Admiral Vandier likened the idea to police surveillance cameras mounted on streetlights in urban hotspots to capture evidence of crime.
“The technology is there to make this street-lighting with USVs (unmanned surface vessels - ed.),” he said.
Vandier's team is in the early stages of developing a fleet of drones so that NATO can see and monitor the environment on a daily basis.
The first step is to achieve this goal on the surface and then underwater.
The new project has already received a full support from the central command of all NATO naval forces, known as MARCOM, and the alliance's operational headquarters, SACEUR.
Drones with combat platforms
Although many details still need to be worked out, officials believe they could equip the drone force with combat platforms that have been proven effective based on experiments conducted by US Navy Task Force 59.
“There is no name (for now), just USV Fleet. In fact, it already exists, so somehow it’s not very risky. The U.S. has enforced Task Force 59 in the Gulf for years, so everything is known and sold, so it is much more a matter of adoption than technology,” Vandier said.
Launched in 2021, TF 59 is a unit that integrates unmanned systems and artificial intelligence in the US Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations. It works from Bahrain and includes drones and other unmanned vehicles working alongside manned ships.
In January, a new unit called Task Group 59.1 was created to test and modernize industry systems to strengthen maritime security in the Middle East.
As of last month, the unit has tested, upgraded, and experimented with more than 23 different unmanned systems.
In early November, it took part in the Digital Talon exercise, during which it remotely launched a barrage furrow at sea and tested vertical takeoff and landing from an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The goal is to launch a fleet of unmanned reconnaissance assets before the next NATO summit in the Netherlands next June.
“We are to experiment with the first talks about this and then work with the allies to find a proper way to make this happen,” Vandier added.
The latest incidents of undersea cable severance occurred on November 17 and 18. A telecommunications company's cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut and a cable connecting Finland and Germany was damaged. The investigation into the incidents is ongoing.
