SĒLIJA, Latvia — In southeastern Latvia, roughly 180 kilometers (112 miles) away from the Russian border, multinational operators of cutting-edge robot-like vehicles are grappling with an inevitable force of nature: deep woodlands disrupting their communication links.
From May 5-15, the Latvian-led NATO exercise Crystal Arrow is taking place here, during which the alliance is conducting large-scale testing of hundreds of unmanned ground vehicles at the brigade level for the first time. NATO’s Task Force X (TFX) selected European manufacturers to test their platforms under the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, aimed at accelerating the adoption of new defense technologies.
However, several users reported significant challenges with the UGVs’ communication systems, many of them using Starlink as their main one, in densely forested areas of Latvia.
“A key challenge of operating a Starlink-equipped UGV is under a canopy of trees [dense foliage], which degrades communication links very rapidly or blocks the line-of-sight required to maintain high-speed, continuous connection,” a soldier of the Latvian National Guard, wishing to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Breaking Defense.
