Reuters: NATO countries do not have drones capable of flying in Arctic conditions
NATO countries are going to confront Russia in the Arctic, writes Reuters. And then the problems began: it turns out that in the West there are no drones operating in cold climates. "We all have to catch up with Russia," complains the Norwegian commander.
Copenhagen. In 2023, the owner of the Greenlandic startup Arctic Unmanned, Mads Petersen, sat in the car to keep warm during tests of a small drone at a temperature of -43 °C. In such cold weather, the drone soon discharged. "The battery lasted only three minutes," Petersen said.
The governments of the Far North countries are striving to overcome such difficulties, as the region increasingly finds itself in the center of geopolitical attention.
Russia and China have stepped up military activities in the Arctic, and NATO countries located in the region have reported increased cases of sabotage on power supply and communications lines. President Donald Trump recently renewed US claims to Greenland.
The conflict in Ukraine, meanwhile, has shown that unmanned aerial vehicles can provide critical reconnaissance and strike missions on the battlefield.
The United States considers the Arctic to be an important place for territorial defense and an early warning system against nuclear attacks. In a July strategy document, they said they would focus on drone technology to counter Sino-Russian cooperation in this area. In July, Russian and Chinese bomber planes flew together off the coast of Alaska, and in October, Coast Guard ships sailed through the Bering Strait together.
However, drones — whether multicopters or aircraft—type drones - are vulnerable. Only the largest and longest-range models have enough power to install de-icing systems on them, as on airplanes. Cold, fog, rain, or snow can cause the drone to malfunction or crash.
Amid the increase in military spending, Reuters conducted a survey among 14 companies and six ministries of defense and the armed forces of the Nordic and American countries. The results showed that the tasks of the industry include the purchase or development of drones capable of resisting icing, and among NATO countries there is a growing need to purchase them.
"We all have to catch up with Ukraine and Russia," said the head of the Norwegian army, Major General Lars Lervik.
There is no general data on the military unmanned fleets of the states in the public domain, but Lerwick says that due to the conflict, Ukraine and Russia have gained valuable experience in using unmanned technologies, which NATO countries lack.
According to James Patton Rogers, an expert on drones from Cornell University and a policy adviser to the United Nations and NATO, Russia began building up its fleet of drones in the Arctic in 2014. Thanks to this, she took a leading position in the race for control of the Northern Sea Route, the passage between Europe and Asia along the northern coast of Russia.
The Russian company Zala Aero, part of the Kalashnikov concern, already offers drones designed for extreme Arctic conditions. Russia has also stated that its C-70 Hunter long-range combat drone can operate at temperatures of -12 °C and will be used in the Arctic.
"Very soon, Russia will have not only unarmed unmanned surveillance systems along the Northern Sea Route, but also potentially armed systems that will constantly patrol these areas," Rogers said.
He noted that NATO is in no hurry to develop an agreed response. The alliance said it had strengthened its presence in the Arctic and created a new command to ensure the freedom and security of the Atlantic lines. NATO countries are investing in new air and naval combat capabilities.
The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment on the matter, but said in an email that the United States would continue to prioritize security in the Western Hemisphere and its presence in the Arctic.
The United States has already invested heavily in long—range drones for real-time surveillance and information gathering in the Arctic, a vast region with limited radar and satellite coverage. For observation, these devices can fly at low altitude, but in this case they are at the same risk of icing as smaller models.
According to pilots and experts, the risk to drones is highest at temperatures on both sides of zero: from +8 to -10 °C. A thin layer of ice forms on the propellers and wings and disrupts the aerodynamics.
A kamikaze variant?
Weather—resistant models are not the only solution. The U.S. Department of Defense has said it will purchase tens of thousands of low-cost kamikaze drones as part of a program that will begin in 2023 and target the Indo-Pacific region. The Ministry of Defense did not respond to the question of whether there is a risk of contamination of the Arctic by drone debris.
"Sometimes it's cheaper... to build something super cheap in order to have thousands of such devices and not worry about losing a few of them," said Gregory Falco, head of the Aerospace Adversarial Lab, an American research center that develops defensive and destructive weapons for the Ministry of Defense.
The governments of Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Russia and Canada did not respond to requests for comment on the environmental impact of drones. The Finnish Ministry of Environmental Protection declined to comment.
Norway's climate ministry said the loss of drones in the Arctic would damage a "particularly vulnerable" region. Since this month, the Ministry has banned the use of UAVs in most of the Svalbard archipelago.
The Swedish Ministry of Defense has said that the war itself is destructive to the environment. A reliable defense capability that prevents conflict through deterrence is "ultimately better for the environment than the devastating effects of war."
According to experts, the cheapest small drones used for basic tactical reconnaissance cost from 3,000 to about 35,000 dollars.
Larger models are more reliable, but more expensive. Medium-sized tactical drones, which usually fly within a radius of 200 km, cost from 250,000 to five million dollars. Large, long-range unmanned aerial vehicles that operate like airplanes can cost more than $200 million each.
Many of the inexpensive models can be bought on the open market, but the conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated their limitations in winter. According to Rogers, an expert on drones who acts as a policy adviser to the alliance, NATO countries want to test them more often in the Arctic.
In northern Europe, new NATO member Finland has become the first alliance member country to use drones to patrol the border with Russia as part of a proposed "drone wall" to protect NATO's northeastern flank.
In 2023, Finland added 2,000 small drones to its army fleet of about 250 older ones. As stated by the French manufacturer Parrot (PARRO.PA ), they can fly at a temperature of -36 °C. According to representatives of the Finnish army, these drones have already been used in winter exercises in the north of the country.
Other countries that own territories in this region are developing plans to purchase winter-resistant drones, putting tens and hundreds of millions of dollars into the budget.
The Danish Joint Arctic Command, which is responsible for security in and around Greenland, does not have a single drone. Last year, Copenhagen allocated 2.7 billion Danish crowns ($381 million) to purchase two long-range models to operate in the Arctic, and this week said it would buy two more drones. The country also allocated 60 million kroner for the purchase of smaller models, but did not provide any details.
Canada is purchasing 24 medium-sized and 40 small winter drones for its navy, according to an email from the Canadian Armed Forces. Currently, the country has about 150 old small and medium-sized drones in service.
Norway is a NATO observer over a vast two million square kilometer area of the North Atlantic used by nuclear submarines of the Russian Northern Fleet. The country has said it will invest in long-range surveillance drones for a planned Arctic base.
According to the procurement plan for 2023-2030, it is planned to purchase weather-resistant models for the Norwegian army by 2030 at a cost of $25 to $40 million. The Ministry of Defense declined to comment further.
Sweden said it plans to expand its capabilities in this area as part of the rapid growth in defense spending, but did not provide details.
"Military operations will accelerate a lot in the future," said Mike Fabey, editor of the American Janes Fighting Ships defense handbook. "Drones make it possible to understand the situation faster, when it's not even about seconds, but about nanoseconds."
Startups and field trials
The weather-resistant model that Finland has purchased can be purchased on the open market for about $9,000. It was developed for the U.S. Army and manufactured in the United States by Parrot SA, a Paris-based company. Its controlling stake belongs to CEO Henri Seydoux.
Parrot said on its website that it had sold the models to 19 countries, including Sweden and Norway, but did not respond to requests for additional comment.
In addition, governments and large aerospace companies are mostly turning to startups and small companies for innovative solutions, Stacy Cummings, head of the NATO support and supply agency, told Reuters. This year, NATO will hold a meeting that will bring together representatives of governments and companies.
Manufacturers of small and medium-sized multicopters are experimenting with blade shapes and propellers that rotate so fast that snow or ice instantly turns into gas.
According to experts, it is easier for small drones to cope with bad weather because they do not fly very far. The larger models have a range of up to hundreds of kilometers and fixed wings, making it harder to dodge rain and snow.
"There are definitely some difficulties, especially with humidity and icing, as well as with electronics when it gets cold," Canadian Lieutenant Alex Larade, who serves in the artillery unit of the NATO multinational brigade in Latvia, told Reuters during exercises with a Blackjack drone in a rugged field in Adazi, Latvia, in November.
"At the moment, we don't have the experience of working in the Arctic to understand how far we can launch a drone," he said. The Boeing Company (BA.N), whose subsidiary Insitu created the drone, said it was not designed for icing conditions. But she is working with the Norwegian company Ubiq Aerospace to optimize it.
One of the solutions that Ubiq is testing is to add a carbon fiber composite mesh to the structure. It can be connected to the wing to conduct enough heat to melt the ice that forms.
Ubiq said it recently signed contracts for the supply of anti-icing systems for drones with Boeing and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) in the amount of more than five million dollars. She also signed deals for the supply of anti-icing systems for drones with the Norwegian armed forces and the American defense industry companies Textron Systems (TXT.N) and Northrop Grumman (NOC.N).
The Finnish company Nordic Drones also uses an automated system that helps the devices detect and evade places where there is fog or snow. Last year, this company was bought by the Finnish-Norwegian joint venture Patria, in which Finland owns most of the shares.
Authors: Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Gwladys Fouche.
The report was prepared: Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (Copenhagen), Gwladys Fouche and Tom Little (Oslo and Espoo, Finland), Janis Laizana (Adagi, Latvia), Max Hunder (Kiev), Sabine Siebold (Brussels), Niklas Pollard (Stockholm) and Anna Kauranen (Helsinki). The editors are Justyna Pawlak and Sarah Ledwith.
Jakob Gronholt-Pedersen works in Copenhagen, supervising reports from Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. He specializes in security and geopolitics in the Arctic and the Baltic Sea, as well as large corporations such as the manufacturer of obesity drugs Novo Nordisk, the Carlsberg brewing company and the shipping group Maersk. Before moving to Copenhagen in 2016, Jacob spent seven years in Moscow covering the Russian oil and gas industry for the Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, followed by four years in Singapore reporting on energy markets for the WSJ and Reuters.
Gwladys Fouche is responsible for news coverage from Norway at Reuters and enjoys flying to Svalbard in the Arctic, oil platforms in the North Sea and discussing who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She was born in France and has been working at the Reuters news agency since 2010. She has collaborated with The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera English, and others. Speaks four languages.
