European Allies Use AI To Help Protect Baltic CUI

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) — made up of ten north-European NATO allies led by the U.K. — have launched a new operation, Nordic Warden, which will use AI to help enhance security and protect Critical Undersea Infrastructure (CUI) in the Baltic and beyond.

The move, announced yesterday (Monday) via a U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) press statement, comes in the wake of continued damage to CUI in the Baltic Sea, amid suspicion that at least some of the outages have been caused deliberately.

As per the statement, Nordic Warden will utilise AI to assess data from various sources, including the Automatic Identification System (AIS) ships use to broadcast their position, to calculate the risk posed by each vessel.

It stated: "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."

The system will send out alerts to JEF and NATO allies if it calculates there is a potential risk to CUI. The move to launch Nordic Warden as a continuous operation follows reported damage to Estlink 2, an undersea cable in the Baltic, on Christmas Day. Finnish authorities have suggested it may have been caused by a tanker comprising part of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" that it reportedly uses to try to dodge international trade sanctions.

The JEF is led by the U.K. and operates out of its HQ in Northwood on the outskirts of London. Its other members are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Netherlands, and Sweden. As well as the Baltic, it monitors activity in other surrounding waterways including parts of the English Channel, North Sea, and the Kattegat.

The JEF first ran a Nordic Warden exercise in summer 2024. Beginning in early June, it comprised a month-long series of protective military activities which saw multiple maritime and air units contributing to the security of CUI across northern Europe from the North Atlantic through to the Baltic.

Nordic Warden elements were also included in JEF's Exercise Joint Protector in November 2024 when more than 300 personnel deployed to Latvia and worked remotely with the Northwood HQ.

A JEF statement commenting on the Estlink 2 incident commended Finland and Estonia for their "decisive actions" and observed: "This is another example of maritime incidents causing direct economic and security implications for Finland and Estonia, highlighting the risks to vital communication and energy networks essential for the security and prosperity of all our nations."

The U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey commented: "The U.K. and JEF are leading the way in providing support to our Allies to help safeguard the offshore infrastructure we all rely on against potential threats. Nordic Warden will help protect against both deliberate acts of sabotage as well as cases of extreme negligence which we have seen cause damage to underwater cables.

"Harnessing the power of AI, this U.K.-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."

• You can read more details on the MoD website
• You can read the full JEF response to the Estlink 2 incident on the JEF website