NATO Will Deploy Unmanned Vessels to Protect Baltic Sea Cables - Plus Data-Assessing AI (twz.com) 25
The BBC brings news from the Baltic Sea. After critical undersea cables were damaged or severed last year, "NATO has launched a new mission to increase the surveillance of ships..."
Undersea infrastructure is essential not only for electricity supply but also because more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, [said NATO head Mark Rutte], adding that "1.3 million kilometres (800,000 miles) of cables guarantee an estimated 10 trillion-dollar worth of financial transactions every day". In a post on X, he said Nato would do "what it takes to ensure the safety and security of our critical infrastructure and all that we hold dear".... Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in December that damage to submarine infrastructure had become "so frequent" that it cast doubt on the idea the damage could be considered "accidental" or "merely poor seamanship".
The article also has new details about a late-December cable-cutting by the Eagle S (which was then boarded by Finland's coast guard and steered into Finnish waters). "On Monday, Risto Lohi of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters that the Eagle S was threatening to cut a second power cable and a gas pipe between Finland and Estonia at the time it was seized." And there's reports that the ship was loaded with spying equipment.
NATO's new surveillance of the Baltic Sea will include "uncrewed surface vessels," according to defense-news web site TWZ.com: The uncrewed surface vessels [or USVs], also known as drone boats, will help establish an enhanced common operating picture to give participating nations a better sense of potential threats and speed up any response. It is the first time NATO will use USVs in this manner, said a top alliance commander... There will be at least 20 USVs assigned [a NATO spokesman told The War Zone Friday]... In the first phase of the experiment, the USVs will "have the capabilities under human control" while "later phases will include greater autonomy." The USVs will augment the dozen or so vessels as well as an unspecified number of crewed maritime patrol aircraft committed
One highly-placed NATO official tells the site that within weeks "we will begin to use these ships to give a persistent, 24-7 surveillance of critical areas."
Last week the U.K. government also announced "an advanced UK-led reaction system to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor the Russian shadow fleet."
The system "harnesses AI to assess data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System (AIS) ships use to broadcast their position, to calculate the risk posed by each vessel entering areas of interest." Harnessing the power of AI, this UK-led system is a major innovation which allows us the unprecedented ability to monitor large areas of the sea with a comparatively small number of resources, helping us stay secure at home and strong abroad.
The article also has new details about a late-December cable-cutting by the Eagle S (which was then boarded by Finland's coast guard and steered into Finnish waters). "On Monday, Risto Lohi of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters that the Eagle S was threatening to cut a second power cable and a gas pipe between Finland and Estonia at the time it was seized." And there's reports that the ship was loaded with spying equipment.
NATO's new surveillance of the Baltic Sea will include "uncrewed surface vessels," according to defense-news web site TWZ.com: The uncrewed surface vessels [or USVs], also known as drone boats, will help establish an enhanced common operating picture to give participating nations a better sense of potential threats and speed up any response. It is the first time NATO will use USVs in this manner, said a top alliance commander... There will be at least 20 USVs assigned [a NATO spokesman told The War Zone Friday]... In the first phase of the experiment, the USVs will "have the capabilities under human control" while "later phases will include greater autonomy." The USVs will augment the dozen or so vessels as well as an unspecified number of crewed maritime patrol aircraft committed
One highly-placed NATO official tells the site that within weeks "we will begin to use these ships to give a persistent, 24-7 surveillance of critical areas."
Last week the U.K. government also announced "an advanced UK-led reaction system to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor the Russian shadow fleet."
The system "harnesses AI to assess data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System (AIS) ships use to broadcast their position, to calculate the risk posed by each vessel entering areas of interest." Harnessing the power of AI, this UK-led system is a major innovation which allows us the unprecedented ability to monitor large areas of the sea with a comparatively small number of resources, helping us stay secure at home and strong abroad.
Technology (Score:2)
Cool. Time to engage technology against the ruZZian brute force.
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Obviously going to be doing this in the South China Sea as well.
And then what? (Score:3)
a persistent, 24-7 surveillance of critical areas.
There's 2 results to consider: "Huh, this suspicious vessel is moving close to a cable." What will NATO do about that? And "Well, the cable broke after this vessel passed over it." SAME QUESTION. Surveillance is only useful to the degree it enables actions, either preventative actions or consequential actions. I'm not convinced NATO is prepared to sink a vessel that traps a cable.
And this represents a more general question: How much "little green men" activities will it take before NATO/EU actually takes responses. We've seen sabotage at munitions plants (dating back 10 years). We've seen obvious espionage, including drone overflights. We've seen jamming and other electronic/cyber attacks. The net response "politicians expressed concern." It's been clear for the last nearly 3 years that Russian nuclear blackmail and the unjustified perception that "we can manage this conflict" has done nothing but prolong the war in Ukraine Each time Biden or some NATO country changes its policy to provide new capabilities to Ukraine, I ask "What if they had done this 2 1/2 years ago? How many lives were lost because we held back?" (Yeah, this IS a hawkish perspective. Play to win, or don't play the game. Playing for a draw just gets more people killed.)
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They won't do anything, as usual.
Let NATO defend their infrastructure (Score:2)
Re: Let NATO defend their infrastructure (Score:2)
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It's not 1946 anymore.
It's also not 1914 anymore, either - no matter how much you longingly look back at that era.
Simple solution (Score:2)
Re: Simple solution (Score:1)
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The world already has suitable laws in place to detain each and every Russian (sponsored) ship that dares sail through that NATO lake.
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*Sail the ship into Tallininin harbor and scuttle it. Er, just let its existing deficiencies sink it.
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Endless inspection of any ship with a Russian on it is not illegal. Well within the rights of the states surrounding that NATO lake. And deficiency whatsoever and the ship gets arrested.
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Law of the sea provides for "innocent passage". When passage is not innocent then the ship may not sail there. It is up to the surrounding countries to define "innocent". See?
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1. Seize ship ...
2. Install "special" autopilot
3. Load with fertilizer
4. Autosail into St Petersburg harbor
5. Ship sits and waits for the right Youtube video
6.