Maritime security is no longer just about guarding ports and shipping lanes. It’s about protecting what's invisible: the cables and energy pipelines on the seabed.
Underwater networks carry 99 percent of the world’s data, enable communication and trillions of financial transactions, and power entire nations’ energy supplies. A single cable cut or damage caused by drones, cyberattacks, or traditional military attacks can disrupt the security and economic stability of entire continents.
Europe faced multiple undersea infrastructure incidents, such as the Nord Stream explosion in 2022 and Balticconnector sabotage in 2023. Concerns grew after damage to underwater cables between Finland and Germany, Sweden and Lithuania in November 2024, and Finland and Estonia in December 2025.
The EU updated its Maritime Security Strategy in 2023 to tackle growing threats to its undersea infrastructure, including those linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It combines innovation, industrial cooperation, joint capability development, and data-sharing to combat physical and cyber threats.
In March 2026, Europe launched the Industrial Maritime Strategy to boost the competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability of its waterborne sector, including shipbuilding, shipping, and ports. The new Counter-Drone Action Plan advances maritime defence by focusing on unmanned naval drones and counter-drone systems against aerial, surface, and underwater threats.
The bloc also invests in detection and surveillance systems. This includes the 2025 Cable Security Action Plan to prevent and detect attacks, the €92 million OceanEye initiative for maritime awareness, and the almost €6 million SOUND2 project, which uses AI to detect threats through underwater acoustics.
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