In 2023, Mads Petersen, owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus-43°C. The cold soon drained the drone’s power.
“The battery only lasted for three minutes,” he said.
Governments in the world’s far north are seeking to overcome such challenges as the region comes increasingly into the geopolitical spotlight. Russia and China have stepped up military activity in the arctic, while NATO states in the region are reporting more acts of sabotage on energy and communications lines. US President Donald Trump has recently revived US claims to Greenland.
ILLUSTRATION: CHEN, YI-CHUN
Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine has shown that uncrewed aircraft can provide critical intelligence and strike capabilities on the battlefield.
The US, which sees the arctic as crucial for territorial defense and its early warning system against nuclear attacks, in a strategy document released in July last year said it would focus on uncrewed technology to counter Chinese-Russian collaboration there.
Russian and Chinese bomber planes flew together off Alaska in July and their coast guard ships sailed together through the Bering Strait in October last year.
However, drones — whether multicopters or fixed-wing models — are vulnerable. Only the largest, long-range models have enough power for anti-icing systems like those used by aircraft. Cold, fog, rain or snow can cause a malfunction or crash.
With countries boosting military spending, a Reuters survey of 14 companies and six defense ministries and armed forces in northern Europe and the US showed that the industry is working at pace to buy or develop drones that can endure icy conditions, and increasing urgency among NATO states to acquire them.
“We are all having to catch up with Ukraine and Russia,” said General Major Lars Lervik, head of the Norwegian armed forces.
No global data is publicly available on states’ military drone fleets, but Lervik said the war in Ukraine has given Moscow and Kyiv valuable experience in drone technology that NATO countries lack.
Russia, whose military began building up a drone fleet in the arctic in 2014, took an early lead in the race to control the Northern Sea Route, a passage between Europe and Asia along Russia’s northern coast, said James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at Cornell University and a UN and NATO policy adviser.
Russia’s Zala Aero, part of the Kalashnikov Group, already offers drones designed for extreme arctic conditions and Russia has also said its long-range S-70 Okhotnik combat drone can operate at minus-12°C and would be deployed there.
“We’re moving towards a point where Russia will not only have unarmed surveillance drone systems along the Northern Sea Route, but potentially armed systems that are constantly patrolling those areas as well,” Rogers said, adding that NATO had been slow to devise a coherent response.
NATO said it has strengthened its presence in the arctic and set up a new command to keep Atlantic lines free and secure; NATO states are investing in new air and maritime capabilities.
The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment on that, but said in an e-mail the US would continue to prioritize security in the western hemisphere and its presence in the arctic.
The US has already invested heavily in long-range drones to monitor and gather real-time information from the arctic — a vast region where radar and satellite coverage are limited. These craft can operate at lower altitudes for surveillance, but if they do they face the same risk of icing as smaller models.
The risk to drones is highest in temperatures just either side of freezing — between 8°C and minus-10°C, drone pilots and experts said. A thin layer of ice forms on propellers and wings and destroys the aerodynamic.
Weather-resistant models are not the only solution. The US Department of Defense has said it would buy tens of thousands of cheap drones with a kamikaze brief as part of a program started in 2023 that would focus on the Indo-Pacific region. It did not respond to a question on whether it might risk littering the arctic with drone debris.
“Sometimes it’s actually cheaper to ... build something super cheap where we can just have thousands of them, and we don’t care if we lose some,” said Gregory Falco, head of the Aerospace Adversary Lab, a US research center that designs defensive and offensive capabilities for the US Department of Defense.
The governments of Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Russia and Canada did not respond to requests for comment on environmental impacts. The Finnish Ministry of the Environment declined to comment.
The Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment said the loss of drones in the arctic would be detrimental in a “particularly vulnerable” region. From last month, it has banned most drone use in much of the Svalbard archipelago.
The Swedish Ministry of Defense said war itself is destructive for the environment; a credible defense capability that prevents conflicts through deterrence “is ultimately better for the environment than dealing with the devastation of war.”
The cheapest small drones used for basic tactical reconnaissance cost as little as US$3,000 up to about US$35,000, experts said.
Bigger models are more robust, but more expensive. Medium-sized tactical drones, which normally fly at a radius of up to 200km, cost between US$250,000 and US$5 million. Large uncrewed long-range drones that operate like airplanes can cost more than US$200 million each.
Many of the cheaper models can be bought on the open market, but the Ukraine conflict has demonstrated their limitations in winter. NATO states are looking to test them more in the arctic, said drone expert Rogers, who acts as a policy adviser to the alliance.
In northern Europe, new NATO member Finland has been a first mover, using drones to patrol its border with Russia as part of a proposed “drone wall” aimed at protecting NATO’s northeastern flank.
Finland in 2023 added 2,000 small drones to its army’s fleet of about 250 older ones. These can fly in minus-36°C, their French manufacturer Parrot said. They have been used in winter exercises in the north, the Finnish army said.
Other countries with territory in the region are drawing up plans to purchase winter-proof drones, budgeting tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command, which is responsible for security in and around Greenland, does not have any drones.
Copenhagen last year set aside 2.7 billion Danish kroner (US$371 million) for two long-range models to operate in the arctic and this week said it would buy two further drones. The country has also set aside 60 million crowns for smaller models, but gave no further details.
Canada is buying 24 winter-capable medium-sized drones and 40 small ones for its navy, the Canadian Armed Forces said in an e-mail. The forces currently operate about 150 older small and medium-sized drones.
Norway, which is NATO’s monitor for a vast 2 million square kilometers area of the North Atlantic used by the Russian Northern Fleet’s nuclear submarines, has said it would invest in long-range surveillance drones for a planned arctic base.
It also plans to buy weather-resistant ones worth US$25 to US$40 million for its army by 2030, its 2023 to 2030 procurement plan said. The Norwegian Ministry of Defense declined further comment.
Sweden has said it plans to scale up capabilities in the area as part of a rapid rise in defense spending, without giving details.
“Warfare is going to get much faster in the future,” said Mike Fabey, US editor at Janes Fighting Ships, a reference book for each country’s defense assets.
“The drones give you that ability to understand the situation more quickly, at a time when it’s going to be about not seconds, but nanoseconds,” he added.
The weatherproof model Finland bought can be purchased on the open market for about US$9,000. It was designed for the US army and made in the US by Paris-listed Parrot SA, which is majority-owned by its chief executive officer Henri Seydoux.
Parrot on its Web site says it has sold models to 19 countries including Sweden and Norway, but did not respond to requests for further comment.
Beyond this, governments and large aerospace firms are mainly turning to start-ups and small companies for innovative solutions, said Stacy Cummings, head of NATO’s support and procurement agency. NATO is to hold a session this year to bring together governments and companies.
Manufacturers of small and medium-sized multicopter drones are experimenting with blade shapes: for instance, propellers that spin so fast that snow or ice is instantly transformed into gas.
It is easier to avoid bad weather with smaller drones because they do not fly very far, experts have said. Larger models have ranges up to hundreds of kilometers and fixed wings, which makes it harder to dodge rain and snow.
“There are definitely some challenges, especially with humidity and icing conditions as well as some of the electronics as they get colder,” Alex Larade, a Canadian lieutenant serving in the artillery unit of NATO’s multinational brigade in Latvia, said during an exercise with a fixed-wing Blackjack drone in a muddy field in Adazi, Latvia, in November last year.
“At this time, we haven’t had the experience in the arctic to actually see just how far we can push the air vehicle,” he said. Boeing subsidiary Insitu, which made the craft, said the drone has not been rated for icing conditions, but it is working with Norwegian start-up Ubiq Aerospace to optimize it.
One approach that Ubiq is testing is to add a mesh of carbon fiber composite that can be switched on to conduct just enough heat to the wing to melt any ice forming.
Ubiq said it has recently signed contracts to provide anti-icing protection for drones with Boeing and Lockheed Martin worth over US$5 million, and has deals for anti-icing drone products with the Norwegian armed forces and US defense industry companies Textron Systems and Northrop Grumman.
Finland-based company Nordic Drones also uses an automated system that helps the craft detect — and dodge — areas with fog or snow.
That company was bought last year by Patria, a Finnish-Norwegian joint venture in which the Finnish state holds a majority.
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