UK Unveils £90 Million Atlantic Net to Hunt Russian Submarines

LONDON — Britain will spend £90 million on a network of autonomous drones, sensors and artificial intelligence systems to track Russian submarines and guard the undersea cables and energy networks of the North Atlantic, the Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday.

The system, called Atlantic Net, is the first phase of the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Bastion programme, a plan to build a hybrid naval force of crewed and uncrewed vessels. The framework was announced at the International Sea Power Conference in Oslo by Luke Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry.

It will be delivered with Hampshire-based Ocean Infinity Solutions, a British company specialising in robotic and autonomous marine technology. The two sides will bring together maritime systems, underwater sensing, communications, remote operations and data services into a single capability directed by the Royal Navy. The deal is expected to support almost 200 skilled jobs.

What Atlantic Net will do

The network will place autonomous systems across the North Atlantic, using advanced sensors to detect Russian submarines and other hostile activity and uncrewed vessels to patrol the depths. The aim is to give submarine-hunting warships and Astute-class submarines earlier warning of threats and a clearer picture of activity beneath the surface.

The system is designed to work alongside the Royal Navy’s crewed fleet, extending surveillance over a stretch of ocean too large for manned ships to watch continuously. Defence officials say the network will increase the scale, persistence and resilience of underwater surveillance.

Why the North Atlantic matters

The waters between Britain, Greenland, Iceland and Norway — the GIUK gap — carry the undersea cables and energy links that connect the UK with North America and its NATO allies. Western officials have warned for years that Russian submarines operate regularly in the region and that the cables on the seabed are exposed to sabotage and interference.

Atlantic Bastion is intended to strengthen the protection of that infrastructure, working alongside NATO and Joint Expeditionary Force allies. The announcement lands amid heightened security attention on British bases and waters: a senior US soldier was arrested in Britain on suspicion of spying for Russia, and the United States evacuated tanker aircraft from RAF Mildenhall after a threat from Iran. Russian strikes cut power to 850,000 people in Ukraine ahead of the Abu Dhabi peace talks.

“The threats are changing”

“The threats beneath the North Atlantic are changing, and we are changing with them,” Pollard said. “This investment gives the Royal Navy new technology to find threats earlier and protect our critical infrastructure, while also backing British business.”

Pollard added that the programme showed the government was “getting on with the job of investing in our Armed Forces and strengthening our deterrence under the sea, to support our ultimate, nuclear deterrent.”

What happens next

The framework is due to be signed this week, and defence analysts expect the first elements of the network to be operational from 2027. The ministry did not disclose an expected date of entry into service, USNI News reported.

A second element announced in Oslo will see Saab’s lightweight Giraffe 1X radar integrated into the Navy’s fleet of uncrewed vessels, giving them the ability to detect and track small airborne targets.

The £90 million figure is roughly $121 million at current exchange rates. The ministry said the investment would build on the 38,700 jobs in south-east England already supported by defence spending with industry.

For the Royal Navy, Atlantic Net is the first concrete step in a plan that could reshape how Britain watches its most important waters — not with more ships alone, but with a persistent, machine-assisted net spread across the ocean floor.