NATO launches SINBAD surveillance to monitor Ukraine, eastern front, and Arctic

NATO is significantly expanding its satellite surveillance capabilities, allowing the alliance to monitor vast territories — including military activity in Ukraine and along Russia’s borders with NATO’s eastern members — according to Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Pierre Vandier.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Vandier said the alliance’s new surveillance tools will, for the first time, enable NATO to track “huge areas,” giving it the ability to closely observe troop deployments, battlefield movements, and potential ceasefire violations in Ukraine. This capability, he noted, is critical to reassuring NATO's eastern flank and addressing long-standing European concerns over Russian military intentions.

“Today we’re not certain the Russians will stop at Ukraine,” Vandier said. “We’ll be able to tell them: we’re watching.”

On June 11, NATO formally announced its selection of US-based satellite imaging company Planet Labs to lead a pilot initiative known as Smart Indication And Warning Broad Area Detection (SINBAD). The program is designed to provide frequent, year-round scans of large global regions. Artificial intelligence will assist in analysing the imagery, identifying changes on the ground, and triggering early warnings.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that SINBAD could also be deployed in the Arctic — a region growing in strategic relevance due to increasing Russian and Chinese activity.

The satellite initiative is part of NATO’s broader push to enhance its space surveillance capacity, which began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. SINBAD will serve as a pilot program ahead of a full NATO space surveillance rollout scheduled for January 2026, the official said.

While NATO continues to heavily rely on US assets in space intelligence, several alliance members are now seeking to reduce this dependency. The push for greater autonomy comes amid President Donald Trump’s second-term shift in foreign policy focus toward Asia and growing pressure on European allies to shoulder more of their own defence burden.

Last week, NATO defence ministers approved one of the most substantial arms buildup commitments since the Cold War, reflecting a joint European and Canadian effort to re-arm and take on more responsibility for regional defence.

Looking ahead to the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24–25, member states are expected to adopt a new defence spending target totalling five per cent of economic output — a combination of 3.5% allocated to core defence and 1.5% to defence-related expenditures. This new benchmark responds to one of Trump’s key demands and represents a significant increase from current levels.

By Tamilla Hasanova