UK Unveils Northern Navies Initiative Linking 10 European Nations
The UK has unveiled the Northern Navies Initiative, a UK-led defence framework that links 10 northern European countries in integrating their maritime defence capabilities, including sea drones and warships. Al Jazeera reported the plan.
The alliance brings together the Royal Navy with nations from the Joint Expeditionary Force, a multinational defence grouping. Those nations are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. An agreement on the initiative was signed on Tuesday, and First Sea Lord Gwyn Jenkins commented on it afterwards.
Luke Pollard, the UK minister for defence readiness, introduced the plan at the Royal Navy's International Sea Power conference. The conference was held on the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales in Oslo. Pollard said Russian naval activity around the UK had increased by 41 percent in the first nine months of the year.
The initiative aims to create a unified surveillance capability using autonomous systems fitted with advanced sensors. The goal is to improve the detection and monitoring of submarine activity. Under the plan, future autonomous platforms would be able to plug in and out of each other's command and control systems. The result would be one large maritime force in place of 10 separate ones.
The UK plans to spend 90 million pounds ($121m) on drones, sensors and artificial intelligence systems. The money is intended to help the Royal Navy counter Russian undersea threats in the North Atlantic and to protect critical infrastructure.
