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Building uncrewed naval vessels with Allied Special Forces in exercise Bold Machina

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Taking lessons from Ukraine, Allied Special Operators learned how to build naval drones from scratch during exercise Bold Machina 25.

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Publication date 03 November 2025
Filming date 24 September 2025
Version B-roll

Synopsis

Allied Special Operators learned to design, build and deploy uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) during exercise Bold Machina 25 in Den Helder, the Netherlands. Led by NATO’s Allied Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM), the exercise sought to teach NATO’s elite soldiers how 3D printing and affordable materials can be used to create naval drones capable of conducting reconnaissance, resupplying forces and conducting maritime strike missions. Taking lessons from Ukraine, where Ukrainian Special Operators have used USVs to upend the balance of power in the Black Sea, SOFCOM partnered with private sector firms to help Allied forces experiment with mono-hulled USVs that were built using a large 3D printer. After installing batteries, motors and an open-source operating system, the operators were able to launch the boats along pre-planned routes in the harbour of Den Helder Naval Base. In a crisis scenario, these drones could be used to perform a variety of combat and support tasks for NATO forces. Footage includes shots of Allied SOF personnel building and deploying maritime drones during exercise Bold Machina 25, along with interviews with Italian Navy Rear Admiral Massimilano Rossi and US Navy Captain Kurt Muhler.

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Transcript

---SHOTLIST— (00:00) VARIOUS SHOTS – INDUSTRY TRAINER FROM GHOST LABS TEACHES CLASS ON ROUTE PROGRAMMING FOR UNCREWED SURFACE VEHICLE (USV) (00:11) VARIOUS SHOTS – ALLIED SPECIAL OPERATORS LISTEN TO LECTURE (00:16) VARIOUS SHOTS – SPECIAL OPERATORS ASSEMBLE USV COMPONENTS (00:34) MEDIUM SHOT – 3D-PRINTED USVs SITTING ON TABLES (00:41) GOPRO SHOT – USV VIEWED FROM WATERLINE (00:55) VARIOUS SHOTS – OPERATORS TEST-DRIVE USVs (01:17) MEDIUM SHOT – OPERATORS PULL USV FROM WATER (01:22) MEDIUM SHOT – OPERATORS CARRY USV FROM SHORE (01:25) VARIOUS SHOTS – USV PATROLLING HARBOUR (01:40) VARIOUS SHOTS – 3D PRINTER FABRICATING USV HULL (02:01) VARIOUS SHOTS – PRINTER DISPLAYS (02:14) VARIOUS TIMELAPSE SHOTS – 3D PRINTER FABRICATING USVs (02:22) VARIOUS SHOTS – DEN HELDER NAVAL BASE HARBOUR (02:32) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Italian Navy Rear Admiral Massimiliano Rossi, NATO Allied Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM) Chief of Staff “Basically, during Bold Machina exercise, we are testing the capacity of a SOF maritime operator to build and to produce by themselves a surface drone in order to obtain, or to close and obtain an advantage against a bigger enemy. So, imagine a small navy or a small SOF unit wants to attack a bigger navy using drones, it’s going to be a surprise, and it’s going to be with very non-expensive assets that they can create the advantage needed to go against a bigger and stronger enemy.” (03:24) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Italian Navy Rear Admiral Massimiliano Rossi, NATO Allied Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM) Chief of Staff “At the end of the day, behind the technological asset, there is always the men. So over here we are teaching guys that are trained to swim, to paradrop, to shoot, how to build an unmanned surface vehicle. Because at the end of the day, they will be the one that will control in the terminal phase the drone, or they have to teach somebody else to control and employ the drone. This is some special skill that only SOF operators can handle. So they are smart enough to understand how, on the technological side, to build these little drones.” (04:05) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) US Navy Captain Kurt Muhler, SOFCOM Director of Maritime Development “This technology is not static. It’s dynamic, it’s advancing, it’s maturing rapidly and it’s changing the environment that we’re operating in. Whether you’re kicking in doors or you’re swimming in a harbour, the technology is arriving to make it more difficult, or in some cases, more advantageous for us if we’re using technology.” (04:31) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) US Navy Captain Kurt Muhler, SOFCOM Director of Maritime Development “We’ve come to the realisation that we need to aggressively, you know, get after it. What that means to me is we can’t be afraid to fail, and sometimes an 80 percent solution is good. So we need to iterate, iterate, iterate. And failure in these iterations with autonomous systems and what we want to do, as long as we’re learning something, it’s not really a failure.” ##END##

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