One track of the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines involves the use of special fast-moving underwater drones, primarily available to NATO forces. An April 20 Bloomberg article reviewing possible investigative issues, though otherwise off target, usefully cited one of Denmark’s most “experienced Navy divers” who contended, in Bloomberg’s words, that “finding the pipelines without precise coordinates or tracking technology, then transporting and placing the explosives, would’ve challenged diver-saboteurs. The diver estimates the operation, including a safe ascent, would’ve taken an individual diver several hours…. [Since] a surface vessel remaining relatively static for hours ... would’ve attracted unwanted attention,” the surmise is that “whoever carried out the attack had access to a fast-moving autonomous submersible vehicle, like the ones employed by sophisticated naval forces.”
The Danish Navy described the diver’s hypothesis as sound, while the country’s intelligence agency, defense ministry, and foreign affairs ministry offered no comment.
NATO does use such unmanned subs. Further, a NATO statement reports that, during the June 2022 BALTOPS exercises—when Seymour Hersh’s intelligence suggests the explosions were placed against the pipelines—the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet trained with underwater “mine-hunting” drones for ten days off the coast of Denmark’s island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. While Kiev has also received a half-dozen of such vehicles from the U.K., there’s no indication that Kiev’s team was anywhere near the area. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-20/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-still-a-mystery-months-later )
