24 June 2026 — Senior representatives from the NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), and the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Directorate for Defence met aboard the NATO Research Vessel (NRV) Alliance to discuss the ongoing Task Force X-Arctic (TFX-Arctic) mission.
The NRV Alliance’s tenth annual Arctic deployment has commenced in Iceland, host nation for the first operational experimentation of TFX-Arctic. The vessel, crewed by the Italian Navy, acts as the primary experimentation platform throughout the trial.
Discussions during the 24 June visit centred on the goals and progress of the mission, the technologies involved, and the challenges of maintaining persistent situational awareness in the extreme conditions of the Arctic and High North. CMRE Director, Dr Eric Pouliquen briefed participants on how the Centre’s specialised research streams come together to deliver TFX-Arctic.
Iceland’s Chief of Defence, Jónas G. Allansson, emphasised the importance of collaboration, stating: “The challenges of the North Atlantic, Arctic, and High North cannot be solved by any nation alone. The mission is a powerful example of Allied cooperation, cohesion, and collective commitment.” Allansson was accompanied by a delegation from Iceland’s Directorate of Defence within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Ragnar Ingibergsson, Director for Operations, and Álfrún Perla Baldursdóttir, Senior National Representative at NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk.
ACT, strategic lead for TFX-Arctic, was represented by Major General Arnoud Stallmann, Assistant Chief of Staff for Multi-Domain Capability, and Captain João Piedade, TFX-Arctic Project Lead.
Over the coming weeks, CMRE scientists and engineers will work on board and ashore, focusing on the integration of maritime and aerial unmanned systems with advanced sensing and intelligence technologies. The experimentation includes trials of equipment developed by innovative companies selected through NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) programme, including Iceland’s Hefring Marine and Finland’s Kelluu.
