Yesterday marked an important day for the Nordic defence and ocean technology community, as the five Nordic Ministers of Defence, together with a large delegation, visited SINTEF Ocean at Havbassenget in Trondheim as part of the NORDEFCO meeting.
The visit focused on a topic that is becoming increasingly critical for defence and security: the underwater domain.
As Norway’s Minister of Defence, Tore O. Sandvik, emphasized during the visit, we cannot see underwater in the same way we can observe what happens on land, in the air, or at the surface. Building better underwater situational awareness is therefore essential, not only for Norway and the Nordic region, but also from a broader European perspective. In a changing security environment, Europe needs stronger capabilities to monitor, understand, protect, and respond to activity below the surface.
This is especially relevant for the protection of critical subsea infrastructure, maritime borders, energy systems, offshore assets, and future naval operations. The underwater domain is becoming an increasingly important part of modern defence, resilience, and hybrid warfare preparedness.
During the visit, SINTEF presented its strong research and test capabilities within ocean technology, including recent awards from the European Defence Fund. These projects are highly relevant to the future of underwater defence and include work on unmanned underwater systems, ultra-deep-water monitoring, and green energy transition for naval vessels.
The delegation was also introduced to four Norwegian underwater and sensor scaleups from the Trondheim technology ecosystem: Skarv Technologies, Maritime Robotics, Eelume, and Water Linked. Together, these companies represent a fast-moving innovation environment with technologies that can contribute to future defence capabilities.
Water Linked was proud to take part in the demonstration and present how reliable underwater navigation and sensor technology can support this value chain.
In underwater operations, GNSS is not available. This makes navigation and situational awareness far more complex. Water Linked’s technology helps ROVs, AUVs, divers, and maritime operators work with greater precision, control, and confidence below the surface.
For defence and security applications, this can support areas such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare support, maritime border and territory protection, inspection of critical underwater infrastructure, and naval training operations.
The visit also highlighted the importance of connecting research institutions, defence stakeholders, industry, and scaleups earlier in the innovation process. To meet future security challenges, Europe needs to shorten the path from research and testing to operational capability.
Water Linked is proud to contribute to this ecosystem, helping make the underwater domain more visible, measurable, and actionable.