A British-led artificial intelligence surveillance operation has been launched to stop ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet” from cutting key underwater cables.
The Joint Expeditionary Force, made up of ten nations, activated the UK-led Nordic Warden operation following reported damage to the Estlink2 undersea cable in the Baltic Sea.
It uses AI to assess data from the Automatic Identification System ships use to broadcast their position, and other sources, to calculate the risk posed by each vessel entering areas of interest.
Vessels identified as being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” have been registered into the system so they are closely watched.
Twenty-two areas of interest, including parts of the English Channel, North Sea, the Baltic Sea and Kattegat, between Denmark and Sweden, are currently being monitored from the JEF’s operational headquarters in Northwood, north west of London.
An alert will be triggered if any ship is assessed as posing a risk.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “This government is working closely with our allies to protect critical national infrastructure, such as undersea cables.”
Royal Navy ships have also been deployed to protect underwater cables.
The JEF stepped up its monitoring last week following reported damage on Christmas Day to the Estlink2 undersea cable in the Baltic, which authorities in Finland suggest may have been caused by a tanker which allegedly forms part of Russia’s shadow fleet of vessels it uses to attempt to bypass international sanctions.
The JEF includes Britain as the “framework nation”, as well as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden.
Baltic Sea nations are on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Vladimir Putin’s military invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Finnish police seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on December 26 and said they suspected that the vessel had damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables on Christmas Day by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
Sweden’s navy on Friday sent a vessel equipped for underwater work to aid Finland’s seabed investigation.
“The current suspicion is that the external force has been caused by an anchor,” said Jaakko Wallenius, Chief Security Officer at Elisa, which owns two of the four fibre optic lines.
The cables, running between Finland and Estonia, are steel-reinforced with a diameter of just over two centimetres, with several layers of insulation protecting the fibres within.
The Eagle S vessel, which is registered in the Cook Islands, was brought to a bay near Finland’s port of Porvoo where police are currently collecting evidence and questioning the crew, eight of whom were named as suspects in the investigation.
A Finnish lawyer representing the company that owns the Eagle S has said Finland hijacked the vessel at sea and should release it, a request denied by a court on Friday.
Moscow has said Finland’s seizure of the ship is not a matter for Russia.
