Denmark to field unmanned vessels for monitoring busy shipping routes

VILNIUS, Lithuania — U.S.-based Saildrone will deploy four large unmanned surface vessels in Danish waters next month to conduct maritime surveillance missions and help protect critical undersea infrastructure.

The deployment, which represents Saildrone’s first European mission, will be done in close cooperation with the Royal Danish Navy Command and the Danish Ministry of Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organization.

Four 10-meter Voyager USVs equipped with a suite of intelligence-gathering sensors and AI data fusion will be sent to Denmark to support the Danish military gain better maritime awareness.

The North and Baltic seas are some of the busiest shipping routes in the world. An estimated 2,000 ships are generally at sea at any given time in the Baltic Sea, according to the Helsinki Commission.

Denmark currently lacks sufficient assets to provide consistent and comprehensive monitoring of the waterway.

“The threats we face at sea are different and far more serious than just a few years ago,” the Danish Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen said at a recent press conference.

The Danish government approved last month a series of naval expansion plans, including the development of a program dedicated to assessing autonomous platforms such as naval drones and remote-controlled vehicles to conduct underwater surveillance.

Saildrone, which announced the establishment of a subsidiary in Copenhagen only a few weeks ago, has plans to expand its presence in the region, the company’s President John Mustin told Defense News.

“Our goal is to have that act as a sort of centre of excellence for our platforms, if for example some would need repair or maintenance work, they could do it right there,” the executive said in a May 8 interview.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

立陶宛维尔纽斯——总部位于美国的Saildrone公司将于下个月在丹麦水域部署四艘大型无人水面舰艇，以执行海上监视任务并帮助保护关键的海底基础设施。

此次部署是 Saildrone 的首次欧洲任务，将与丹麦皇家海军司令部和丹麦国防部采购与后勤组织密切合作完成。

四艘 10 米长的 Voyager 无人水面艇将配备一套情报收集传感器和人工智能数据融合系统，并被送往丹麦，以支持丹麦军方获得更好的海上态势感知能力。

北海和波罗的海是世界上最繁忙的航线之一。据赫尔辛基委员会估计，波罗的海任何时候通常都有约2000艘船舶在海上航行。

丹麦目前缺乏足够的资源来对该水道进行持续全面的监测。

丹麦国防大臣特罗尔斯·伦德·波尔森在最近的一次新闻发布会上表示：“我们在海上面临的威胁与几年前相比已经不同，而且要严重得多。”

丹麦政府上个月批准了一系列海军扩建计划，其中包括制定一项专门用于评估海军无人机和遥控车辆等自主平台以进行水下监视的计划。

Saildrone公司总裁约翰·穆斯汀告诉《防务新闻》，该公司几周前刚刚宣布在哥本哈根成立子公司，并计划扩大在该地区的业务。

这位高管在 5 月 8 日的采访中表示：“我们的目标是让它成为我们平台的卓越中心，例如，如果某些平台需要维修或维护工作，他们可以在那里进行维修或维护。”

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。