NATO established the Baltic Sentry mission in 2025 to address the vulnerability of critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. The region contains a dense network of power interconnectors, fibre-optic cables, and seabed installations that have been repeatedly affected by ambiguous or hostile activity.
The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO transformed the Baltic into an almost entirely Alliance-controlled maritime space, creating both the political impetus and operational requirement for a coordinated, persistent security posture.
Task Force X (TFX) provides the principal mechanism for integrating maritime uncrewed systems into Baltic Sentry. Its mandate is to deliver scalable USVs, UUVs, and UASs that can augment or substitute for traditional platforms, particularly in the demanding acoustic and environmental conditions of the Baltic. Crewed patrol vessels and maritime patrol aircraft cannot