UK-Led AI System Monitors Undersea Infrastructure Threats

By Thomas Johnson, New Civil Engineer
January 14, 2025

A UK-led global artificial intelligence (AI) system for tracking potential threats to undersea infrastructure has been activated by the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) following extensive damage done to Estlink2, a major undersea cable in the Baltic Sea.

As part of the activation, JEF partners and Nato will now be alerted by the system, named Nordic Warden, to any ships deemed a risk to key areas of interest while it will also work to monitor the Russian “shadow fleet”.

This activation follows the 10-nation JEF, of which the UK is the framework nation, expressing concern at the damage caused to Estlink2.

The operation, activated last week, harnesses AI to assess data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System (AIS) ships use to broadcast their position, to calculate the risk posed by each vessel nearby to important undersea infrastructure.

Estlink 2 is a set of HVDC submarine power cables between Estonia and Finland. An unplanned outage on Christmas Day 2024 reduced the Estonia–Finland cross-border capacity from 1,016MW to 358MW.

A number of theories have arisen that the cable was sabotaged by the Russian tanker Eagle S, which has previously been alleged to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet. This fleet was assembled to evade international sanctions placed on Russia to limit its exportation of crude oil and natural gas in response to the nation’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Finnish Police stated shortly after the incident it was investigating whether the damage to Estlink 2 was caused by Eagle S dragging its anchor along the seabed. The Estlink 2 incident followed further occurrences of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea being damaged or completely severed over the past few years.

Specific vessels identified as being part of Russia’s shadow fleet have been registered into Nordic Warden so they can be closely monitored when approaching key areas of interest.