AI deployed by 10 European navies to track Russia’s shadow fleet

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) has activated an advanced UK-led reaction system to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor the Russian shadow fleet, following damage to a major undersea cable in the Baltic Sea. The JEF is a UK-led Northern European multinational military partnership.

The tanker Eagle S which is part of the dark fleek servicing Russia was seized and boarded by the Finnish coastguard on December 26. The ship is suspected of being involved in the damage of a subsea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia and disruptions of several data cables. The Finnish decision to board was far more swift and decisive than what was seen with the Yi Peng 3 in November. In that case, the vessel suspected of destroying two cables from Sweden to Germany and Finland to Germany was at anchor for a month before Danish, Swedish and Germans went onboard for a single day of investigations whereafter the vessel went on its way.

The naval operation, activated last week and named Nordic Warden, 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. 

Specific vessels identified as being part of Russia’s shadow fleet have been registered into the system so they can be closely monitored when approaching key areas of interest.

If a potential risk is assessed, the system will monitor the suspicious vessel in real time and immediately send out a warning, which will be shared with JEF participant nations as well as NATO allies.

John Healey, the UK’s defence secretary, commented: “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.”

22 areas of interest – including parts of the English Channel, North Sea, Kattegat, and Baltic Sea, are currently being monitored from the JEF’s operational headquarters in the UK, where personnel from all 10 JEF nations work side by side.

This week’s announcement complements last month’s agreement between the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Estonia to request proof of insurance from suspected shadow vessels as they pass along the Baltic and the English Channel. Further sanctions aimed at Russia’s shadow fleet are expected to be unveiled by the UK, the US and the European Union shortly.