Russian Shadow Fleet’s Movements In Europe To Be Tracked By New AI System

Increasing concerns over the movement of the Russian shadow fleet of oil tankers, especially after the damage to Finland’s undersea cables, has prompted the United Kingdom to partner with Northern European Nations in deploying a new AI system to track the fleet.

The AI system was first tested in the summer of last year and has real-time capabilities to track the shadow fleet involved in the Russian oil trade.

The operation called the Nordic Warden is led by the U.K as a part of the Joint Expeditionary Force launched 10 years ago and comprises 10 countries, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland.

This system harnesses the power of AI and enables the monitoring of massive sea areas using smaller resources. AI assesses data from several sources, including AIS which ships use to broadcast their position and calculate the risk posed by each ship entering areas of concern.

If a potential risk is assessed by the system, it monitors the ship in real time and sends out a warning that will be shared with all the participant countries and NATO allies.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said that Nordic Warde will aid in protecting against deliberate attacks and also cases of negligence which can damage undersea cables.

Many ships which are part of the shadow fleet have been fed into the system so they can be closely monitored. The system targets 22 areas, including the Baltic, North Sea, English Channel etc.

The system was deployed during the JEF’s Exercise Joint Protector, an exercise that had over 300 British personnel sent to Latvia to demonstrate the capabilities to deploy abroad at short notice.

References: Defense News