The seabed has become a strategic frontier where commerce, data and security converge.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM | AUGUST 2026
The European Union is accelerating investment in submarines, warships, drones and surveillance systems to protect the underwater infrastructure supporting its economy. Between 2016 and 2025, EU maritime defence production reached approximately €117.8 billion, reflecting a strategic shift from treating the sea primarily as a commercial space to recognising it as a contested security domain.
More than 95 percent of international digital traffic travels through submarine fibre-optic cables extending over 1.4 million kilometres. These networks carry an estimated €9.2 trillion in financial transactions every day. Around two-thirds of the world’s oil and gas is extracted offshore or transported by sea, while maritime routes move 80 percent of global trade. For the EU, shipping accounts for 75.6 percent of imports and 73 percent of exports.
This dependence has made cables, pipelines, ports and offshore energy facilities potential targets for sabotage and hybrid operations. Damage can be caused by inexpensive drones, unmanned underwater vehicles, mines or civilian vessels operating with manipulated identification signals. Authorities are therefore moving beyond traditional naval patrols toward layered systems capable of detecting unusual movements, limiting disruption and rapidly restoring damaged services.
Submarines represent 27 percent of the value of EU maritime defence production, while crewed surface vessels account for 65 percent. Autonomous platforms are gaining importance in surveillance, reconnaissance and infrastructure monitoring. Between 2016 and 2025, the annual value of EU unmanned-vehicle production increased by 132 percent to €847 million. Artificial intelligence now allows operators to combine underwater sensors, satellite imagery, coastal radar, ship identification data and port records.
France, Germany, Italy and Spain generate 87 percent of the bloc’s maritime defence output. Naval Group leads the European market, followed by Fincantieri, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Spain’s Navantia. This industrial concentration provides advanced capabilities, but experts warn that a few major naval powers cannot protect every coastline, trade route or cable network. Effective defence will require interoperable forces distributed across Europe and coordinated with the United Kingdom and Norway.
The EU is supporting this transformation through its updated Maritime Security Strategy, the 2025 Cable Security Action Plan and new defence programmes. OceanEye will invest €92 million in artificial intelligence, autonomous sensors and digital twins, while other projects are developing acoustic detection systems and maritime combat networks. Readiness 2030 could mobilise more than €800 billion across European defence, including naval capabilities and protection of maritime communication routes.
Europe’s challenge is no longer simply building more ships. It must connect national systems, commercial operators and military intelligence into a permanent regional network capable of identifying ambiguous threats before isolated incidents become continental crises.
Phoenix24: claridad en la zona gris. / Phoenix24: clarity in the grey zone.