Sweden’s Saab will head a multinational push to standardise allied undersea operations.

NATO has selected the Saab-led Mangrove consortium to deliver its Allied Underwater Battlespace Mission Network, a project intended to make crewed and uncrewed maritime systems interoperable across allied fleets and services. The network is designed to enable rapid, secure information exchange and integration across domains, and is expected to become a NATO standard.

The programme sits within NATO’s Digital Ocean and Anti-submarine Warfare Barrier Smart Defence Initiative. It is sponsored by 12 nations—the United Kingdom as lead nation, alongside Sweden, the United States, Australia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway—who have committed to adopt the resulting standard.

Formally launched on 1 September 2025 following a 16 July selection, the project will design a reference architecture and build a test and reference environment linking platforms operating above, on and below the water. Saab announced the award on 19 September.

Mats Wicksell, who heads Saab’s Kockums business, said the consortium will concentrate over the next year on delivering the mission network, arguing that the underwater domain is gaining strategic importance for collective maritime security. David Burton, project director for NATO’s Anti-submarine Warfare Barrier initiative, said the effort marks a significant step in modernising warfighting and ensuring allies can operate together effectively underwater.

Saab’s Kockums unit leads a team including Cetena and IDS of the Fincantieri Group, FlySight, GraalTech, Miraya, Saab UK, BlueBear, S2IX and the University of Plymouth.

Source: European Security and Defence.