• NATO is planning to launch a fleet of uncrewed naval ships, a military commander said.
• Pierre Vandier told Defense News they will monitor and protect critical underwater infrastructure.
• Gas pipelines and undersea cables have been damaged in recent years, with some suspecting sabotage.

NATO is planning to roll out a fleet of uncrewed naval ships to protect critical underwater infrastructure.

Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, shared the development with Defense News on Tuesday.

He told the outlet his team was in the early stages of establishing the drone fleet, but aimed to launch it before a NATO summit next June.

Vandier compared the concept to police CCTV cameras that are mounted on streetlights in high-crime areas to capture evidence of criminal activity.

"The technology is there to make this streetlighting with USVs," he said, using the acronym for uncrewed surface vessels.

Vandier added that the goal was that "NATO can see and monitor its environment daily," especially across the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.

The development comes after several incidents of critical underwater infrastructure being damaged or severed over the last three years, with Russia sometimes suspected of being behind it.

In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions in the Baltic Sea rendered two Nord Stream gas pipelines, designed to transport gas from Russia to Germany, inoperable.

Danish, Swedish, and German authorities launched investigations and concluded that the incident was an act of sabotage. Denmark and Sweden closed their investigations due to a lack of evidence or jurisdiction, while Germany is continuing its probe and says it has identified two suspects.

Last month, two undersea fiber-optic communication cables were also damaged in the Baltic Sea, in a suspected act of sabotage.

The cables included a 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden's Gotland Island, and a 730-mile cable carrying data between Germany and Finland.

A NATO official told Business Insider in September that threats to subsea infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and data cables, had increased since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

NATO has since taken steps to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure and prepare for any disruptions.

It created a NATO-EU task force on the resilience of critical infrastructure in January 2023, established an infrastructure coordination cell in February 2023 to map vulnerabilities, and set up the Maritime Center for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure this May.

NATO is also "stepping up patrols," Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesperson for NATO's Allied Maritime Command, told Reuters this month.

Regarding the drone fleet, Vandier didn't specify the types of USVs or their overall number, but said that the US is already using a similar concept.

The US Navy established Task Group 59.1 in January to test and deploy uncrewed systems to improve maritime security in the Middle East.

"So somehow it's not very risky," Vandier said, adding that "everything is known and sold, so it is much more a matter of adoption than technology."

NATO's Allied Command Transformation's Public Affairs Office didn't respond to a request for comment.

• A Chinese ship was seen near severed Baltic Sea internet cables, the FT reported.
• Germany's defense minister said the incidents were likely to have been "caused by sabotage."
• An unnamed source told the FT that Sweden is investigating whether China was involved.

Sweden is investigating the sighting of a Chinese vessel near where two Baltic Sea internet cables were severed, the Financial Times reported.

The first cable — a 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden's Gotland Island — stopped working on Sunday.

Later on Monday, a 730-mile cable carrying data between Germany and Finland was cut.

Boris Pistorius, Germany's defense minister, said on Tuesday that it was being assumed that the two incidents were "caused by sabotage."

"No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged," he said.

A joint statement by France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Britain had previously suggested that Russia was involved. However, China is now also being investigated.

Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-registered cargo ship, was traveling from Russia to Egypt when it passed the two cables at around the same time each was cut on Sunday and Monday, according to Marine Traffic data obtained by FT.

The ship was then followed closely by the Danish Navy, open-source intelligence experts told the outlet.

The Danish defense ministry said it was "in the area near" the Chinese ship in a statement on X Wednesday, amid unconfirmed reports that Danish officials had boarded the vessel.

Erin Murphy, coauthor of a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies report on the threat to undersea cables, speculated that China may be working in tandem with Russia.

"There have been questions about China's support or lack of opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine but if intentional, this is an aggressive step by a China that typically operates in the Indo-Pacific region," Murphy told BI.

In 2023, a Chinese vessel was investigated after dragging its anchor and damaging gas and telecommunications lines in the Gulf of Finland. China cooperated with the investigation.

In a joint statement on Monday, the Foreign Ministers of Finland and Germany said they were "deeply concerned" about the incidents.

"The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times," the statement said.

"A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors," they added.

"Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies."

The International Union of Marine Insurance estimates that repairing damaged cables usually costs between $7 and $12 million.

It comes amid tensions between the West and China over its support of Russia in the war against Ukraine.

Representatives for Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Marine Traffic, and China's Embassy in the UK did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.