“Great Britain is expanding the “Atlantic Bastion” program, which is aimed at strengthening the defense of the country’s underwater infrastructure against the background of increasing threats from the Russian Federation.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
SG-1 Fathom. Photo: Sky News Source: “European Truth” with reference to Sky News
Details: A senior officer in Britain’s Royal Marines has released an update on the Atlantic Bastion program amid growing concern over recent Russian actions, including the spy ship Amber, which has been spotted near British waters.
As noted, the Atlantic Bastion program, announced as part of the Strategic Defense Review, will combine autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence with warships and drones to detect and protect threats to underwater infrastructure.
The country’s Ministry of Defense said it was a “direct response to the renewed activity of Russian submarines and underwater assets”, including the incident involving the Yantar spy ship, which was spotted in British waters last month.
This year, the project has attracted a combined investment of £14m (about $18.3m) from the country’s Ministry of Defense and industry. In Britain, it is hoped that the technology could be implemented next year.
A total of 26 companies from Britain and Europe submitted proposals for this project.
As noted, Defense Secretary John Gealy visited the naval base in Portsmouth to see some of the early technology that could be used as part of the Atlantic Bastion project.
They included, in particular, Rattler – an unmanned remote-controlled boat; experimental unmanned submarine Excalibur; SG-1 Fathom is an underwater glider.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense noted that “Atlantic Bastion” will combine ships, submarines, aircraft and drones using acoustic detection technology based on artificial intelligence and integrate them into a digital guidance network.
It will be recalled that in November it was spotted near the British coast Russian spy ship “Amber”. At that time, London even warned of readiness for a military response if his actions began to pose a threat. In Moscow rudely answered to this warning.
On December 4, it became known that Britain and Norway are concluding a large-scale agreement on defense cooperation for the protection of underwater infrastructure, which involves the joint activity of the fleets of both states in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean.