Baltic debut: Poland's StormRider feeds live data to NATO's Ankara summit

As NATO leaders gathered in Ankara for the alliance's summit, an unremarkable eight-metre craft was tracing a course through Polish waters of the Baltic. StormRider, the unmanned surface vessel developed by Poland's WB Group, took part in a NATO Task Force X demonstration, with the picture from its sensors relayed in real time to the proceedings in the Turkish capital. It is the clearest sign yet that Poland's maritime industry is entering NATO's unmanned systems ecosystem not as a supplier of individual components, but with a complete, armed platform that can be plugged straight into the alliance's command loop.

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09 july 2026   |   12:40   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Grupa WB / Gazeta Morska

Footage of the demonstration circulated on social media: in the foreground the small silhouette of StormRider, behind it the substantial hull of the frigate ORP Gen. T. Kościuszko. The two units moved together, and the aim of their joint activity was what NATO parlance calls building situational awareness, meaning the gathering and relaying of information about what is happening along shipping lanes and in areas where critical maritime infrastructure is located.

A Baltic patrol with a view of Ankara

The essence of the demonstration was not the manoeuvre itself but the data relay chain. The onboard sensors, comprising a navigation radar, sonar, echo sounder and an electro-optical turret with day and thermal channels, gathered the tactical picture. It was passed to a shore-based control centre and from there onward, all the way to the NATO summit in Ankara, where it was presented in real time. According to WB Group spokesperson Weronika Krawczyk, quoted in the Polish media, this showcased the capabilities of the Polish system before the alliance's highest body.

The symbolism matters. The Ankara summit, scheduled for 7 and 8 July 2026, brought together the heads of member states; Poland was represented by President Karol Nawrocki and deputy prime ministers Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Radosław Sikorski. That data from a Polish, privately developed surface platform was being displayed on allied screens at precisely this moment is both a demonstration of technological maturity and part of a wider contest over the standing of national industry in NATO's modernisation programmes.

It is worth clarifying the nature of the undertaking at the outset, because it is easily confused with conventional naval exercises. StormRider's participation did not take place within the annual REPMUS or Dynamic Messenger, but specifically in the Task Force X format, and the two are different things.

What Task Force X is

Task Force X is an initiative launched in February 2025 by NATO's Allied Command Transformation. Formally it is neither a traditional exercise nor a military operation, but an operational test conducted under the alliance's rapid technology adoption action plan. Its aim is to verify, under realistic conditions, how crewed systems and unmanned platforms can work together within a coherent, interoperable command and control architecture, while keeping human control over decisions and the use of effectors.

The starting point was the Baltic. Since the initiative began, trials of various kinds have been run there, and the format has since been extended to other seas. Task Force X now operates in several strands: alongside the Baltic one (TFX Baltic) there are an Arctic strand (TFX Arctic) and the newest, central Mediterranean TFX CentMed, run under Italian leadership as the first project of its kind led directly by a member state and spanning every operational domain.

For Polish industry, the Baltic strand is the key one. The task of TFX Baltic is to strengthen the maritime security of critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, precisely the area that, after a series of incidents involving damage to cables and pipelines, has become one of the most sensitive points on the alliance's threat map. The Baltic Task Force X demonstrations also served as a warm-up ahead of the far larger manoeuvres held in Portugal in the autumn.

An eight-metre vessel from Gdynia

StormRider is an unmanned, optionally crewed, Harbour-class surface vessel roughly 8.5 metres long and 3 metres wide. Behind it stand two Gdynia-based companies within WB Group: Radmor, responsible for the onboard electronics, communications and data exchange, and Arex, supplier of the weapon module. It is the domestic electronic systems that form the heart of the project. They can be fitted to hulls of varying size, providing a kind of core for an unmanned surface system.

The design is no accident. The StormRider concept grew out of Ukrainian experience in operations against Russia's Black Sea Fleet, where cheap, unmanned surface craft repeatedly proved effective against far costlier warships. WB Group representatives openly draw the analogy with the land-based Gladius system, speaking of the search for a "maritime Gladius," that is, a reconnaissance-strike platform for the water environment.

The sensor fit comprises a navigation radar on a small mast, sonar, an echo sounder and an independent high-resolution observation turret with day and thermal cameras and a laser rangefinder. In the patrol-strike variant shown publicly, the vessel carries a ZMU-05N remotely operated weapon station with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and launchers for Warmate loitering munitions in the TL-R and TL-C versions. Small X-Fronter reconnaissance UAVs round out the package. This configuration lets an operator engage smaller targets independently or support warships in neutralising larger ones, without putting crewed units at risk.

StormRider is operated remotely from a shore-based control and monitoring centre, but can also run semi-autonomously, holding course and avoiding obstacles on its own. The manufacturer says the vessel will gain fuller autonomy in the near future.

From Kielce to Baltic trials

StormRider was first shown publicly at last year's International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) in Kielce, and then at the BALTEXPO fair. Before that, and before it reached the exhibition stands, it spent several weeks crossing the Baltic as a mysterious object spotted by internet users in Gdańsk Bay.

The first stage of sea trials was about verifying the basics. As WB Group managing director Marcin Kubica recounted, these checked the vessel's ability to stay afloat and under way, its range and its manoeuvrability. The next step is to be the integration of onboard systems, including StormRider working together with other unmanned platforms produced by the group, which fits the company's vision of an unmanned, multi-domain battlefield.

Its designers opted for modularity. Mission equipment can be selected according to the profile of the task, so that the same platform serves as a weapons carrier, a reconnaissance and electronic warfare system, and a carrier of environmental sensors. In the reconnaissance role, StormRider can gather hydrographic, oceanographic and environmental data and conduct optical and radar observation in real time, acting as a forward "picket" that passes the picture back to the command system. After strikes carried out by other units, it can assess their effectiveness, delivering precise imagery.

The list of tasks is broad: protection of roadsteads, ports, anchorages and critical maritime infrastructure; counter-diversion activity; Force Protection support; countering threats from hostile UAVs; and, once fitted with the appropriate module, medical evacuation and the transport of supplies. Thanks to its modest size, the vessel can be launched not only from a quay, using trailers or containerised command posts, but also from the decks of frigate-class ships and above. That opens a scenario in which StormRider complements crewed platforms, for example the guided-missile frigates being acquired under the Miecznik programme, extending their observation range and safety in congested, navigationally difficult waters.

Poland in NATO's unmanned maritime ecosystem

The Task Force X demonstration is not an isolated episode but part of a growing Polish presence in allied programmes for maritime unmanned systems (MUS). This is seen most clearly in the largest such undertaking, the combined REPMUS and Dynamic Messenger exercises held in September 2025 off the coast of Portugal.

The scale is striking. The fifteenth edition of REPMUS, regarded as the world's largest event devoted to maritime robotics, was combined with NATO's Dynamic Messenger and brought together participants from nearly 40 nations, some 3,700 personnel and more than 270 unmanned systems operating in the air, on the water and beneath it. For the first time in its history, the opposing force (Red Team) in the operational phase was led by Ukraine, bringing to the manoeuvres a realism drawn from war.

Poland was clearly present. Among the domestic entities cited as contributing to the NATO ecosystem were PGZ Stocznia Wojenna (integration of unmanned systems on naval platforms), OBR CTM of the PGZ group (sonar technologies, underwater warfare, integration of underwater and surface vehicles), Advanced Protection Systems (counter-drone and radar technologies for the protection of critical infrastructure and naval bases), Radmor, and WB Group together with its subsidiary Flytronic, the latter chiefly on the side of unmanned aerial vehicles, C4ISR systems and tactical and mini platforms.

That last distinction matters for the record: at REPMUS and Dynamic Messenger, WB Group made its mark mainly in the aerial domain and in command systems, whereas the maritime StormRider made its debut in the Task Force X format. The common denominator of both undertakings, however, is interoperability, and its technical foundation is becoming the shared data-exchange standards, above all STANAG 4817, meant to ensure that the unmanned assets of every allied nation can communicate with one another and feed a common operational picture.

The multi-domain revolution and the procurement question

StormRider fits the "multi-domain revolution" announced by WB Group, a concept of a coherent system of unmanned platforms cooperating with one another in the air, on land, on the water and in cyberspace, linked by advanced communications and command systems and operating alongside vehicles, aircraft and crewed warships. From the point of view of naval forces this is an attractive prospect: an unmanned platform allows sustained operation in designated waters, cost reductions and relief for the navy from routine peacetime and crisis tasks, while remaining able to move instantly from monitoring to active response.

Despite its successful debut on the NATO stage, StormRider remains at the demonstration and trials stage. Military representatives are watching the system closely, but no contract for its acquisition has been signed so far. For the Polish Navy, as well as the Border Guard and Special Forces, all named as potential customers, what matters now is whether that interest translates into an order.

One thing is certain: maritime unmanned systems have ceased to be a concept of the future and are becoming a rapidly maturing capability that is reshaping how fleets operate. The Baltic, a sea threaded with cables, pipelines and shipping lanes and lying in the shadow of the Russian threat, is a natural proving ground for that change. And the demonstration relayed to Ankara showed that Polish industry does not intend to be a mere spectator in this contest.

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Grupa WB StormRider autonomiczne systemy bezzałogowe NATO NATO Task Force X

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