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According to DefenseNews, NATO plans to deploy unmanned boats in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas to patrol the oceans for threats that could target underwater internet cables.
The alliance provides drones at sea that can act as a surveillance camera network that can record activities on or under water. “The technology is there to make these street lights with USVs [unmanned surface vessels],” Admiral Pierre Vandier told DefenseNews.
The fleet will be based on drone experiments by the US Navy’s Task Force 59, which has been working to introduce drones into the water for naval operations in the Middle East. This includes equipping the robot boats with weapons. In January, the task force said it had “tested, upgraded, developed and operated more than 23 different unmanned systems.”
This comes weeks after two underwater fiber optic cables connecting Lithuania, Sweden, Finland and Germany were severed in the Baltic Sea. Investigators initially suspected that the Russian government may have been behind the disruption of an alleged act of sabotage. But since then, Europe has kept a close eye on a Chinese merchant ship for deliberately damaging underwater cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
According to The Wall Street Journalthe ship Yi Peng 3 left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 15 with Russian fertilizer on board. But for some reason the ship dragged its anchor more than 100 miles across the northern European Baltic Sea bed.
The incident and subsequent investigation prompted European warships to surround the Yi Peng 3. The ship’s owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is reportedly cooperating with the investigation, but Western intelligence still suspects that Russian agents were behind the alleged sabotage, although the Kremlin has denied any sabotage. involvement.
