NATO met with company leaders in Belgium this week to explore potential collaboration in maritime surveillance.
Over 200 representatives from government and industry convened at NATO Headquarters in Belgium to discuss how to better protect vital communications in sea lanes and other infrastructures.
The event is part of the military alliance’s Digital Ocean initiative, launched in 2023 to increase NATO’s ability to see, sense and respond to threats from seabed to space.
The initiative aims to enhance the nations’ maritime domain awareness through cooperation and adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies, including autonomous systems that can operate on, above and below the water’s surface.
Securing undersea internet cables, energy pipelines and shipping routes has been a major challenge over the past several months.
Earlier, Vice Adm. Didier Maleterre, deputy commander of NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, warned against Russia’s threat to underwater infrastructures critical to the Euro-Atlantic area.
“We know the Russians have developed a lot of hybrid warfare under the sea to disrupt the European economy, through cables, internet cables, pipelines. All of our economy under the sea is under threat,” he said.
His comments come months after the attacks on Nord Stream 1 and 2 in September 2022 and the Balticconnector in October 2023.
