As maritime tensions have increased since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Denmark is investing big in defence tech.
The Danish Armed Forces has announced it is deploying four uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), dubbed ‘Voyagers,’ to boost surveillance capacity in under-monitored waters.
They will be patrolling in Danish and NATO waters in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea for three months, according to the Danish Armed Forces.
“The security situation in the Baltic is tense, and therefore it has been decided by Danish parliament and the Danish government to improve the capabilities of Danish defence, and this includes the maritime domain and of course this includes our maritime domain awareness,” said Kim Jørgensen, the director of the Danish National Armaments.
Powered by solar and wind energy, they can operate autonomously for months at sea.
Drones are mounted on these 10-meter-long vessels and artificial intelligence (AI) helps analyse data of the surrounding environment under and above the surface of the ocean using advanced sensors.
"So, the vehicles [work] like a truck. The truck carries the sensors and we use on-board sophisticated machine learning and AI to fuse that data to give us a full picture of what's above and below the surface," said Richard Jenkins, the founder and CEO of Saildrone, the company that makes the ships.
The firm said the autonomous sailboats can support operations such as illegal fishing detection, border enforcement, and strategic asset protection.
Denmark invests big in defence
According to a report published in 2024 from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, EIFO, one of the country’s investment agendas lies in defence in light of the new geopolitical landscape.
The unmanned surface vehicles were purchased through a $60 million (€51,70 million) investment round led by EIFO.
The four Voyagers will be first in operation for a three-month trial, as Denmark and NATO allies aim at extending maritime presence, especially around critical undersea infrastructure such as fibre optic cables and power lines.
NATO and its allies have increased sea patrolling following several incidents, such as the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in 2022, the Balticconnector gas pipeline burst in 2023, and undersea cable damage in the Baltic Sea in 2024.
Its developer, Saildrone, is establishing its European headquarters and operational hub in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
The American company says the new subsidiary will be the hub for all European operations.
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