Protecting Undersea Cables With Artificial Intelligence
NATO has developed a new tool to help Allies detect suspicious shipping vessel activity and protect undersea cables and pipelines from potential sabotage.
Known as ‘Mainsail’, the software tool developed by the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), flags vessels behaving suspiciously. The CMRE is situated in La Spezia, Italy, and is a world-class NATO scientific research facility with over 60 years of expertise.
Artificial intelligence analyses maritime traffic, allowing authorities to spot vessels that appear to be diverting off-course to potentially damage or gather intelligence about undersea infrastructure.
Damage to the pipelines and cables that carry energy and information across the seabed can be very disruptive.
In November and December of 2024 alone, three separate cables carrying internet data and power between five NATO Allies – Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden – were severely damaged.
ALSO READ: Norway and France Forge Closer Defense Ties With an View to the High North