Defense considering private security to protect North Sea infrastructure
The Ministry of Defense wants to hire security personnel and equipment from private companies to protect North Sea infrastructure, a spokesperson confirmed to Pointer. The hiring is intended as a temporary solution until Defense has new ships to do the securing itself.
It is not yet known which company Defense plans on hiring or what powers the hired personnel will have. The Ministry recently came under fire when Follow the Money revealed that Defense had illegally used private shooting instructors to fill gaps in its rosters. The Ministry is talking with “several parties and institutions” about North Sea security, the spokesperson told Pointer. “Parliament will be informed about the further details of the hiring of patrol capacity.”
According to the program, this is the first time in peacetime that Defense will outsource military tasks in the North Sea to private parties. The announcement comes in the same week that two submarine data cables in the Baltic Sea failed. The affected countries suspect sabotage.
In September, journalistic research by Pointer and other media revealed that Russian vessels were spying on infrastructure in the Baltic and Nort Sea on a large scale. Pointer’s research also showed that the Russian research vessels had armed soldiers on board, specialized in reconnaissance and sabotage.
