Latest news with #TaskForce59
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Saildrone launches Red Sea naval drone hardened against GPS jamming
MILAN – Saildrone, a U.S. manufacturer of unmanned surface vessels, has integrated new protective equipment onto its drone boats operating in the Middle East to safeguard them against widespread jamming of communication systems in the region. The company said it had successfully deployed its Saildrone Voyager, a 33-foot USV, in Jordan, with new hardware and software algorithms, allowing it to operate in GPS-denied environments. 'Due to regional events, GPS jamming and spoofing have hindered unmanned operating systems in the area – following intensive testing by our engineers to create a resilient positioning system, Saildrone now has the ability to autonomously operate in spoofed maritime environments,' a company statement reads. The U.S. Navy's Task Force 59 has used Saildrone USVs for several years as part of experiments with unmanned systems and artificial intelligence carried out across the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of operations, which include the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. Key challenges identified in these waters include piracy as well as smuggling of weapons and drugs. A more recent threat to regional maritime security has been GPS interference, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which tracks intrusion reports in these areas. The agency has received further corroborating reports from vessels experiencing jamming in the Strait of Hormuz, with disruptions lasting several hours, affecting navigation systems and requiring vessels to rely on backup methods, it said in a March 10 statement. The upgrades made to the Saildrone USV exploit different forms of localization to allow the systems to operate without relying exclusively on satellite signals. The boat carried out missions in contested environments during the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025, the largest maritime exercise in the Middle East, last month. 'Satellite positioning and connectivity can no longer be relied upon in potential future conflicts,' Richard Jenkins, founder and chief executive officer at Saildrone, said in a statement. In recent years, there has been increased pressure for U.S. forces to train without relying on GSP for positioning, navigation and timing information (PNT). In a 2022 article for the U.S. Naval Institute, U.S. Navy Lt. Anthony Carrillo noted that a major vulnerability of the country's naval weapons is that nearly all of them rely on GPS.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NATO put its new Task Force X naval drones built to stop sabotage and blunt Russian aggression to the test
New NATO naval drones are being put to the test in the Baltic Sea. The uncrewed surface vehicles are part of the alliance's efforts to deter aggression and sabotage. The new Task Force X is reminiscent of the US Navy's Task Force 59 efforts. The NATO alliance has been testing new Task Force X naval drones in the strategic waters of the Baltic Sea, showing off the new capabilities of these uncrewed systems. The drones are intended to help the allies keep an eye on Russia's activities in the region and deter the potential sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure such as data cables. NATO Allied Command Transformation announced the drone demonstrations Wednesday, saying they "signal a significant step forward in integrating unmanned surface vessels, commonly referred to as USVs, to bolster NATO's ability to safeguard critical infrastructure and maintain security in an increasingly complex environment." French Adm. Pierre Vandier, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said Task Force X will fill surveillance gaps in the region. Bart Hollants, an official from NATO's Allied Command Transformation Branch, called it "the first tangible results" of NATO's efforts to curb security threats in the Baltic. The demonstration involved NATO maritime assets, including from the Royal Danish and German navies, testing how drones work together with crewed vessels. The testing activities included tactical maneuvering exercises like live-fire events with the goal of integrating drones into NATO's naval forces. NATO announced its plans to establish Task Force X and employ naval drones in late January. The aim of the project is to counter and deter state and non-state actors from sabotaging undersea cables, as well as curb potential Russian aggression. Task Force X is working to field "a fleet of maritime autonomous systems to provide persistent surveillance, detect and track potential threats, and enhance situational awareness," NATO said. "This approach offers a cost-effective and rapidly deployable solution to counter Russian aggression." The move came after several incidents in which undersea cables in the Baltic were damaged by vessels linked to Russia and China. These troubling incidents were suspected of being part of Russia's ongoing hybrid and irregular warfare tactics against Western European nations, gray-zone tactics below the threshold of armed conflict. Other recent examples include Russian interference in European elections and misinformation campaigns. Concern about the targeting of critical undersea cables and related infrastructure has led NATO to take action. NATO's new Task Force X, the alliance said, is similar to the US Navy's Task Force 59, an initiative fielding naval drones in the Middle East. Task Force 59 is a first-of-its-kind Navy initiative started in September 2021. Since then, the task force has conducted at least 35 bilateral and multilateral exercises, operating drones at sea for more than 60,000 hours across the Middle East. Both the US Navy and NATO's efforts speak to the growing employment of uncrewed systems and, to some degree, autonomy in surveillance and deterrence roles. In both cases, the drones are intended to give military forces more options for missions, as well as a wider reach in troubled waters. There are still plenty of unknowns about how these systems will be further integrated into naval warfare for both the US and NATO, though. Ukraine's use of drone boats to pummel Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been a notable win and asymmetric element in the war in Ukraine. "The integration of autonomous systems also raises important issues such as command and control, data security, and the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in warfare," NATO said in its release on the testing. "NATO is aware of these issues and is developing safeguards and protocols to ensure the responsible use of these technologies." Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NATO put its new Task Force X naval drones built to stop sabotage and blunt Russian aggression to the test
New NATO naval drones are being put to the test in the Baltic Sea. The uncrewed surface vehicles are part of the alliance's efforts to deter aggression and sabotage. The new Task Force X is reminiscent of the US Navy's Task Force 59 efforts. The NATO alliance has been testing new Task Force X naval drones in the strategic waters of the Baltic Sea, showing off the new capabilities of these uncrewed systems. The drones are intended to help the allies keep an eye on Russia's activities in the region and deter the potential sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure such as data cables. NATO Allied Command Transformation announced the drone demonstrations Wednesday, saying they "signal a significant step forward in integrating unmanned surface vessels, commonly referred to as USVs, to bolster NATO's ability to safeguard critical infrastructure and maintain security in an increasingly complex environment." French Adm. Pierre Vandier, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said Task Force X will fill surveillance gaps in the region. Bart Hollants, an official from NATO's Allied Command Transformation Branch, called it "the first tangible results" of NATO's efforts to curb security threats in the Baltic. The demonstration involved NATO maritime assets, including from the Royal Danish and German navies, testing how drones work together with crewed vessels. The testing activities included tactical maneuvering exercises like live-fire events with the goal of integrating drones into NATO's naval forces. NATO announced its plans to establish Task Force X and employ naval drones in late January. The aim of the project is to counter and deter state and non-state actors from sabotaging undersea cables, as well as curb potential Russian aggression. Task Force X is working to field "a fleet of maritime autonomous systems to provide persistent surveillance, detect and track potential threats, and enhance situational awareness," NATO said. "This approach offers a cost-effective and rapidly deployable solution to counter Russian aggression." The move came after several incidents in which undersea cables in the Baltic were damaged by vessels linked to Russia and China. These troubling incidents were suspected of being part of Russia's ongoing hybrid and irregular warfare tactics against Western European nations, gray-zone tactics below the threshold of armed conflict. Other recent examples include Russian interference in European elections and misinformation campaigns. Concern about the targeting of critical undersea cables and related infrastructure has led NATO to take action. NATO's new Task Force X, the alliance said, is similar to the US Navy's Task Force 59, an initiative fielding naval drones in the Middle East. Task Force 59 is a first-of-its-kind Navy initiative started in September 2021. Since then, the task force has conducted at least 35 bilateral and multilateral exercises, operating drones at sea for more than 60,000 hours across the Middle East. Both the US Navy and NATO's efforts speak to the growing employment of uncrewed systems and, to some degree, autonomy in surveillance and deterrence roles. In both cases, the drones are intended to give military forces more options for missions, as well as a wider reach in troubled waters. There are still plenty of unknowns about how these systems will be further integrated into naval warfare for both the US and NATO, though. Ukraine's use of drone boats to pummel Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been a notable win and asymmetric element in the war in Ukraine. "The integration of autonomous systems also raises important issues such as command and control, data security, and the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in warfare," NATO said in its release on the testing. "NATO is aware of these issues and is developing safeguards and protocols to ensure the responsible use of these technologies." Read the original article on Business Insider
