NATO is preparing to expand the use of unmanned systems to protect the Baltic Sea, according to the website UK Defence Journal reported.
According to the report, the next phase will be the Task Force X Balticinitiative formalized through a new memorandum of understanding signed by eight participating Allies. According to NATO, the program represents a practical transition from innovation testing to real operational deployment.
“At the 2025 NATO Summit, Allied Governments agreed to a significant increase in our defense spending to achieve a new and ambitious set of defense objectives,” said Nikolaos LoutasDirector of NATO’s Department of Defense Industry, Innovation and Weapons, at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
According to him, they also supported “a rapid adoption action plan to accelerate the pace of technology adoption to achieve these goals.”
The action plan was described as a mechanism to integrate innovation into defense planning, with the aim of responding to what it described as urgent operational needs for new, effective technology.
“The action plan integrates NATO’s innovation efforts into defense planning and capacity development to meet our armed forces’ urgent needs for innovative and effective technological products,” Loutas said.
He added that the Allies are committed to measures designed to accelerate acquisition and integration, including sharing best practices, new adoption pathways and increased experimentation to de-risk new products.
Loutas also referred to the Task Force X Baltic-Initiative as one of the practical mechanisms that make this possible. “A step in this direction is the structure of the Task Force X Balticwhich today reaches a very important second milestone with the signing of a letter of intent for the second phase of the Task Force X Baltic.“
“The first phase of the Task Force X Baltic “has demonstrated that allied navies and land forces, working closely with industry, can deliver continuous intelligence, surveillance and detection from the seafloor to space at speed, at scale and in a more cost-effective manner,” Loutas continued.
NATO officials said the second phase will see eight allies reaffirm their cooperation in rapidly acquiring multi-domain capable technologies for maritime operations. These countries are: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
Since the second phase of the Task Force X Baltic Now formalized, NATO is positioning the program as a model for wider deployment, with lessons from the Baltic cable incidents driving efforts to integrate commercial unmanned capabilities into overall NATO capabilities.
Photos: NATO / Saildrone. This content was created using AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
