Marine Link
Saturday, March 15, 2025
SUBSCRIBE

Subsea Defense News

13 Mar 2025

Saildrone, Palantir Technologies Partner for Maritime AI Solutions

Saildrone and Palantir Technologies partner to enable the scaling of autonomous systems to deliver maritime AI solutions. Credit: Saildrone/Business Wire

Saildrone announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies to enable the scaling of autonomous systems to deliver maritime AI solutions in an era of mounting global threats and critically constrained shipbuilding capacity.Saildrone operates the world’s largest fleet of operationally deployed USVs, providing maritime domain awareness to the U.S. Navy, Department of Homeland Security, and international allies. The autonomous vehicles utilize edge-computing AI/ML algorithms to monitor activities both above and below the sea surface…

13 Mar 2025

Oceaneering Nets US Gov Maritime Mobility System Deal

(Credit Oceaneering)

Oceaneering International, via its Aerospace and Defense Technologies (ADTech) segment, has been awarded a multi-year contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to design, build, test, and deliver a maritime mobility system.Oceaneering said it has been down-selected from multiple teams, without revealing any additional details.“We are pleased to have secured this contract with the Department of Defense which, at the time of award, is the largest initial contract value in Oceaneering’s history.“This award demonstrates the cross-industry application of our maritime technology…

25 Feb 2025

Taiwan Detains Ship after Undersea Cable Disconnected

© Keitma / Adobe Stock

Taiwan's coast guard said it detained a China-linked cargo ship on Tuesday after a nearby undersea cable to the Penghu Islands in the sensitive Taiwan Strait was disconnected.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has repeatedly complained about "grey zone" Chinese activities around the island, designed to pressure it without direct confrontation, such as balloon overflights and sand dredging.Taipei was alarmed after a Chinese-linked ship was suspected of damaging another cable earlier this year…

24 Feb 2025

EDGE and Fincantieri Deepen Partnership for Underwater Protection Solutions

Illustration (Credit: Fincantieri)

EDGE and Fincantieri have signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU), deepening their cooperation through joint venture Maestral, which will be focused on the design, development and creation of unmanned systems for critical underwater infrastructure protection and seabed mapping, next-generation submarines, drone-carrier ships, and lightweight torpedoes.The MoU is based on both companies collaborating to develop underwater technologies, supporting the United Arab Emirates…

23 Feb 2025

Underwater Sabotage: A Baltic Sea Timeline

© dragancfm / Adobe Stock

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.Several investigations are under way but no suspects have been brought to trial.FEBRUARY 2025: FINLAND-GERMANY TELECOM CABLESwedish and Finnish police said on February 21 they were investigating a suspected case of sabotage of an undersea telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea…

11 Feb 2025

Securing the Deep: Business Opportunities in Subsea Defense

Copyright Jesper/AdobeStock

As global reliance on subsea infrastructure grows, so do the risks. Discover how safeguarding undersea assets opens new frontiers for innovation and investment.Importance of Subsea InfrastructureSubsea infrastructure plays a critical role in maintaining the operational continuity of the modern society and the global economy. This vast network includes subsea data and communication cables, pipelines for energy transportation, electricity cables, and resource extraction systems.

09 Feb 2025

“External impact” Damaged Russian Cable

© katestudio / Adobe Stock

An underwater Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable was damaged by an "external impact," Russia's TASS news agency cited the country's state-owned Rostelecom company as saying on Saturday."Rostelecom's submarine cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea as a result of an external impact some time ago," TASS cited Rostelecom as saying.Restoration work is under way and the incident has had no impact on subscribers so far, Rostelecom added.Rostelecom did not provide further details and it was unclear when the damage occurred.

09 Feb 2025

Baltic States Switch from Russian to European Power Grid

Source: EU Commission

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed a switch from Russia's electricity grid to the EU's system on Sunday, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security after the suspected sabotage of several subsea cables and pipelines.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the move, years in the planning, as marking a new era of freedom for the region, in a speech at a ceremony in Vilnius alongside the leaders of the three countries and the Polish president."These chains of power lines linking you to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past…

03 Feb 2025

Baltic Sea Cable Break an Accident, says Sweden

Copyright A.Freund/AdobeStock

Bad weather, bad equipment and poor seamanship ... the recipe for many at sea accidents ... was the culprit in a recent subsea cable break; not sabotage with Russia and China fingerprints.These are the findings of a Swedish prosecuter when discussing why the  Maltese-flagged cargo ships Vezhen was released, because the did damage it did to the subsea cable linking Sweden and Latvia was an accident, not sabotage.The incident took place on Jan. 26 and was one of several in recent months…

09 Jan 2025

NUWC Employee Shares Family Legacy with USS Fort Lauderdale

John Lauderdale (c) NUWC

When the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) docked at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island from Nov. 21-24, it was especially meaningful for a Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport employee whose family name is linked to the ship’s name.John Lauderdale, a resident of New London, Connecticut, serves in Division Newport’s Undersea Warfare Electromagnetic Systems Department as principal for safety for electronic warfare, imaging and radar for PMS 435, visited the USS Fort Lauderdale to share his family’s legacy.

03 Jan 2025

Subsea Sabotage in the Baltic Sea - a Timeline for Perspective

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, built across the Baltic Sea by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom GAZP.MM to pump natural gas to Germany, were damaged on Sept. 26, 2022. Copyright scaliger/AdobeStock

A Finnish court today denied a request for the release of an oil tanker suspected by police of damaging an undersea power line and four telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea last week. The incident was one of several since 2022 in which underwater critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea has suffered suspicious damage. Baltic Sea nations are on high alert and NATO has said it will boost its presence in the Baltic Sea.The following is a timeline of major 'incidents' since September 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.SEPT 2022: NORD STREAM BLASTSNord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2…

27 Dec 2024

Estonia Launches Navy to Protect Baltic Sea Power Link After Baltic Sea Outages

© fotokate / Adobe Stock

Estonia's armed forces have launched a naval operation to protect the Estlink 1 undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea in response to the damage this week of a parallel electricity line, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Friday.Finland on Thursday seized a ship carrying Russian oil on suspicion the vessel caused an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable which, like Estlink 1, connects Finland and Estonia, and that it also damaged four internet lines.Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for acts of sabotage following a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelin

19 Dec 2024

SHIPWRECK PODCAST: Exploring USS Stewart with James Delgado

We talk with renowned maritime archaeologist James Delgado about the recently found US Navy destroyer USS Stewart. Stewart was a century-old US Navy destroyer that earned the unenviable distinction of serving under both American and Japanese flags during World War II. This groundbreaking discovery was made off the coast of northern California on a collaborative expedition between Ocean Infinity, the Air/Sea Heritage Foun-dation, SEARCH, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries…

28 Oct 2024

China Seizes Underwater “Lighthouses”

© noraismail / Adobe Stock

China's Ministry of State Security said on Tuesday that it had retrieved spying devices both on the ocean surface and in the depths of the sea, including underwater "lighthouses" that could guide the transit of foreign submarines.The ministry said it had uncovered devices that had been hidden on the ocean floor and were sending back information that could "pre-set the field for battle," in an article on its official WeChat account, China's most popular social media app.Recent…

26 Sep 2024

Singapore Boosts Undersea Might with Two New Submarines

(Photo: MINDEF Singapore)

Singapore commissioned two new advanced submarines on Tuesday, vessels its navy says are meant to protect sea lines of communication, and which experts said would range beyond the waters of the tiny city-state to keep tabs on the region.The country's fifth and sixth submarines, the Invincible and the Impeccable, were ordered from Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in 2013 in a 1-billion-euro deal, and join older Archer- and Challenger-class boats.They represent a technological step forward for Singapore's fleet…

07 Nov 2024

Babcock Hires KDC Veolia to Assist with UK’s Nuclear Submarine Dismantling

(Credit: UK MOD / Crown Copyright 2024)

Babcock has awarded the recycling contract to KDC Veolia Decommissioning Services UK (KDCV) as part of U.K.’s demonstrator project to fully dismantle a nuclear-powered submarine Swiftsure.Babcock is working with the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) and KDCV on the demonstrator dismantling project, applying a new and innovative methodology which will enable around 90% of the structure and components to be reused or recycled.This includes the pressure hull around the reactor compartment…

19 Aug 2024

Greensea IQ Contract to Further Develop USN Autonomous Vehicle

The upgraded VideoRay Defenders, with EOD Edge, will provide a robust solution for underwater EOD tasks. The integration of sonar-based target classification and operator assist autonomy enables more accurate threat detection and neutralization. Image courtesy Greensea IQ

Greensea IQ announced an extension to its prototype (Other Transaction Agreement) with the Defense Innovation Unit and U.S. Navy following the successful completion to Phase 3 of the Autonomous Expeditionary Maritime Response Vehicle (AEMRV) prototype last fall.The objective of this contract modification is to demonstrate a production-ready edge processing configuration of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Workspace, called EOD Edge, deployed in Greensea’s IQNS, with the autonomy and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) components.

26 Aug 2024

Australia Conducts First Maintenance of US Nuclear Submarine

Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) prepares to moor at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, as part of a scheduled port visit before performing a submarine tendered maintenance period (STMP) with the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), Aug. 22. (Photo: Victoria Mejicanos / U.S. Navy)

A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine will undergo maintenance in Australia for the first time on Friday, a key step by AUKUS partners to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific, the defense ministers of Australia, Britain and the United States said.Australian personnel trained with the United States and Britain over the past year ahead of the submarine maintenance at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, involving personnel from the three nations."Our navies are committed to reinforcing…

19 Nov 2024

Germany Reaffirms Suspicions of Baltic Subsea Cable Damage Being Sabotage

© Pungu x / Adobe Stock

The damaging of two undersea telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea should be presumed to be sabotage, Germany said on Tuesday, while Lithuania's armed forces boosted surveillance of its waters in response."No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don't want to believe in versions that these were ship anchors that accidentally caused the damage," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said before a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels.Two fibre-optic cables - one linking Finland and Germany…

18 Nov 2024

Sabotage: Two Undersea Cables Cut in Baltic Sea

© Peter Hermes Furian / Adobe Stock

Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, were severed, raising suspicions of sabotage by bad actors, countries and companies involved said on Monday.The episode recalled other incidents in the same waterway that authorities have probed as potentially malicious including damage to a gas pipeline and undersea cables last year and the 2022 explosions of the Nord Sea gas pipelines.The 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working around 0200 GMT on Monday…

04 Nov 2024

General Dynamics Mission Systems to Develop Clandestine Mine Delivery System

Source: General Dynamics Mission Systems

General Dynamics Mission Systems has been awarded a $15.9 million contract by the U.S. Navy to develop its Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) system.MEDUSA is a tactical, clandestine mining system using an expendable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) that can be launched from a submarine torpedo tube. The U.S. Navy is developing MEDUSA to address the need for an advanced maritime mining system with long-range offensive mining capabilities.The scope of the newly awarded research and development effort includes the design…

05 Nov 2024

EDGE and Fincantieri Join Forces to Develop Advanced Subsea Defense Systems

(Credit: Fincantieri)

EDGE and Fincantieri have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the design, development, and creation of advanced manned and unmanned underwater systems solution capability through their recently launched UAE-based shipbuilding joint venture MAESTRAL.The preliminary agreement will pave the way and boost for developing sophisticated solutions tailored to the unique underwater needs of navies worldwide.The collaboration marks EDGE’s first venture into underwater domain…

03 Dec 2024

Struggles to Secure Baltic Sea Dominates NATO's 'Freezing Winds '24'

U.S. Marines participate in the Swedish Heritage Parade in Dragsvik, Finland, Nov. 6, 2024. U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Rotational Force – Europe are in Finland to participate in exercise Freezing Winds 24, an annual Finnish-led maritime exercise which serves as a venue to increase Finnish Naval readiness and interoperability between NATO partners and allies in and around the Baltic Sea. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Christian Salazar)

On Nov. 18, hours after two communication cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, 30 NATO vessels and 4,000 military staff took to the same body of water for one of northern Europe's largest naval exercises.The 12-day 'Freezing Winds' drill was part of a push to step up the transatlantic defence alliance's protection of infrastructure in waters that carry 15% of global shipping traffic and are seen as increasingly vulnerable to attack.The Baltic Sea is bordered by eight NATO countries and Russia.