2024-09-26 19:00 update: 2024-09-26, 20:18
Photo PAP/EPA
The world's largest manoeuvres utilising drones are being carried out by NATO member states in Portugal this September.
The experimental REPMUS exercise featured drones which were used to attack vessels, detect mines and combat submarines.
A 3-metre-long British-made drone took off from a small runway on Portugal's Troia Peninsula. It rose a few dozen metres above the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, after which several palm-sized unmanned aerial vehicles detached from it and approached the surface of the water at high speed, destroying balloons placed on the surface by the Portuguese Navy.
The deployment of several small drones, or a swarm, to attack targets on the surface of the sea or ocean is just one of several functions of the British unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Apart from the UK's UAV, armed forces of NATO countries, technology companies and scientists have been testing a range of other drones during the REPMUS exercise.
The annual manoeuvres, organised and conducted by the Portuguese Navy and NATO with the participation of foreign armed forces, universities and companies, have been taking place for several years, with a growing impact. Representatives from NATO countries have met in Portugal to test the ability of autonomous systems to operate together and increase the understanding of new threats in the maritime environment.
Not only aerial vehicles, but also surface, submersible and ground drones are being tested, with artificial intelligence playing an increasing role in their operation.
James Appathurai, who is responsible for innovation and hybrid and cyber threats in NATO, told reporters that the alliance collaborated in the field of new technologies with industrial and academic partners.
He said the development of new maritime unmanned systems would significantly improve the bloc's situational awareness, including underwater.
According to the participants in the exercise, the role of unmanned vehicles on the battlefield is bound to increase and NATO must be prepared for it, particularly given the fact that both Russia and China have been very active in pursuing the development of the unmanned technology.
"The growing importance of these weapons has been demonstrated in the war in Ukraine," a high-rank Portuguese Navy commander told PAP. "Despite the fact that Kyiv has practically no navy, it has successfully used relatively cheap unmanned military vehicles to operate in the Black Sea. The Ukrainians, by the way, are participating in the exercise in Portugal, sharing their experience with us."
NATO countries are testing systems to attack enemy targets, but also learning how to protect their own units, such as ships, from enemy drone attacks.
REPMUS participants also stressed that one of the biggest challenges in naval warfare is protecting ships from mines. They are relatively cheap and can be deployed using submarines and surface ships, aircraft or merchant vessels.
"Properly deployed by the enemy, they can block the entrance to a port or destroy our ships. That is why it is so important to be able to detect them, both on and under the water," a Portuguese Navy officer told PAP.
These capabilities are being tested close to a base a few dozen kilometres away from the Troia Peninsula, in the coastal town of Sesimbra, where a number of representatives of European and US companies arrived to present and test with the military their underwater vehicles.
Interoperability is very often mentioned as one of the main goals of the manoeuvres. The idea is to transfer information between different autonomous systems - operating underwater, on the water surface, on land and in the air - as accurately and as quickly as possible, in order to coordinate their operations.
REPMUS 24 is hosted by Portugal and co-organised by NATO, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto and the European Defence Agency. The protection of critical infrastructure, such as undersea cables, is also tested as part of the exercise. (PAP)
jd/mf
