Finland and Sweden consider joint purchase of maritime drone vessels for Baltic surveillance
Finland and Sweden are discussing a shared acquisition of unmanned surface vehicles to boost monitoring of the Baltic Sea, with possible deployment in Finnish waters by year-end.
During a meeting in Suomenlinna, Finnish Navy commander Tuomas Tiilikainen announced plans for a joint procurement of unmanned surface vehicles with Sweden, aiming to improve Baltic Sea security. These USVs resemble small sailboats equipped with radar, cameras and other sensors that feed real-time intelligence to maritime operations centres, enabling identification of unknown ships. Finland hopes to have the drones operating in its waters before the year concludes, sharing the assets temporarily with Sweden.
In parallel, the Swedish navy will deploy a maritime corvette to the Gulf of Finland, which will be placed under Finnish Defence Forces command and will relay data to Finland’s maritime centre. This arrangement allows Finland to concentrate its own capabilities on the southeastern Gulf while receiving Swedish surveillance support elsewhere.
Why it matters
The cooperation enhances regional maritime security and demonstrates deeper defence ties between Finland and Sweden.
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