Protecting the Oceans: Ensuring the Security of NATO's Maritime and Subsea Infrastructure

Key Chapter Title List

1. Introduction to the Military Committee
2. Topic A: Protecting the Seas: Securing NATO's Maritime and Subsea Infrastructure
3. Introduction
4. NATO's Role
5. Conclusion and Further Research
6. Guiding Questions

Document Overview

This report is a core issue analysis by the NATO Military Committee on maritime security, aimed at addressing the increasingly severe threats to critical maritime and subsea infrastructure. Against the backdrop of incidents such as the suspected sabotage of Baltic Sea subsea cables by Russia's shadow fleet in 2024, the report points out that the Atlantic Ocean and its marginal seas, as the arteries of global trade (carrying approximately 90% of trade volume), are facing unprecedented security challenges. These challenges stem not only from traditional military forces but also from gray zone operations and hybrid threats designed to undermine the Alliance's economic resilience and social stability.

The report systematically outlines the key strategic and operational adjustments NATO has taken to adapt to the evolving maritime security landscape. Core initiatives include the updated and released Alliance Maritime Strategy in October 2025, which provides a comprehensive framework for enhancing capabilities, leveraging emerging technologies, increasing lethality, and ensuring readiness. Its practical implementation is exemplified by Operation Baltic Sentinel launched in January 2025, which aims to protect critical subsea infrastructure through the deployment of assets such as frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and naval drones. Concurrently, the establishment of the NATO-EU Task Force signifies the Alliance's cross-institutional cooperation in collectively strengthening critical infrastructure security.

The analysis indicates that the primary current threat originates from Russia, which has significantly enhanced its naval power by introducing advanced underwater reconnaissance and sophisticated undersea warfare capabilities, and by strengthening cooperation with the People's Republic of China to jointly challenge Euro-Atlantic maritime security. NATO's response focuses on enhancing readiness, improving situational awareness, and strengthening maritime deployments to counter naval adversaries in coastal areas. The core strategic objectives include strengthening credible nuclear deterrence, deploying responsive maritime forces across the Atlantic, exercising high-end operational capabilities for controlling sea lines of communication and power projection, and enhancing persistent situational awareness across the maritime, air, space, and cyber domains.

However, the report also clearly states that NATO faces multiple challenges: resource constraints and competing priorities among member states may hinder the development of high-end maritime capabilities; political fragmentation continues to test the critical pillars of consensus and collective response; climate change and the evolving Arctic landscape add additional pressure to the Alliance's maritime responsibilities. To this end, the report's conclusion calls for NATO to adopt a proactive and flexible approach, combining robust deterrence with resilient capabilities while maintaining solidarity among Allies. Finally, the report proposes a series of guiding questions concerning the effectiveness of current strategies, the need for dedicated undersea warfare doctrine, the role of emerging technologies, and how to better coordinate intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, thereby outlining key discussion directions for subsequent policy formulation and capability development.