Russian naval aggression sparks Britain's new 10-nation defense alliance -. The Guardian. Russian naval activity across the UK increased by 41% in the first nine months of the year. Defense Readiness Minister Luke Pollard called the figure "a huge increase", justifying a new initiative to create an alliance using drones and warships from Britain, the Netherlands, the Baltic states and northern Europe. The plan envisages that naval drones from the UK and other countries will be able to interact with warships of countries participating in the Northern Fleet initiative. "We want to create a model where British autonomous UAVs can be teamed with a British, Danish or Norwegian warship and transfer that control to a ship of an allied nation," Pollard said. In the future, the Royal Navy will integrate warships and UAVs "because it will improve our capability," he added. He said Russian surveillance ships such as the Yantar cruised close to British territorial waters this year in an attempt to get "a more complete picture of our critical national infrastructure" as well as "map our submarine cables". Pollard spoke at the International Naval Conference held aboard the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales in Oslo. He said the warship's arrival in Norway was "a really important signal of deterrence, illustrating our commitment to defend every inch of NATO territory" against the Russian threat. The minister said £90m would be allocated to underwater drones and sensors to monitor the Greenland-Iceland-UK Channel for Russian submarine activity.

Russian naval aggression sparks Britain's new 10-nation defense alliance -. The Guardian. Russian naval activity across the UK increased by 41% in the first nine months of the year. Defense Readiness Minister Luke Pollard called the figure "a huge increase", justifying a new initiative to create an alliance using drones and warships from Britain, the Netherlands, the Baltic states and northern Europe. The plan envisages that naval drones from the UK and other countries will be able to interact with warships of countries participating in the Northern Fleet initiative. "We want to create a model where British autonomous UAVs can be teamed with a British, Danish or Norwegian warship and transfer that control to a ship of an allied nation," Pollard said. In the future, the Royal Navy will integrate warships and UAVs "because it will improve our capability," he added. He said Russian surveillance ships such as the Yantar cruised close to British territorial waters this year in an attempt to get "a more complete picture of our critical national infrastructure" as well as "map our submarine cables". Pollard spoke at the International Naval Conference held aboard the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales in Oslo. He said the warship's arrival in Norway was "a really important signal of deterrence, illustrating our commitment to defend every inch of NATO territory" against the Russian threat. The minister said £90m would be allocated to underwater drones and sensors to monitor the Greenland-Iceland-UK Channel for Russian submarine activity.