Poland Tests StormRider Naval Drone With Frigate to Stream Live Baltic Sea Data to NATO.

Poland’s WB Group demonstrated its StormRider unmanned surface vessel with the Polish Navy frigate ORP Gen. T. Kościuszko, transmitting live Baltic Sea sensor data to NATO officials in Ankara, the company said on July 7, 2026. The test showed how a small forward platform can extend a frigate’s surveillance reach while keeping the larger warship farther from potential threats.

StormRider provided remote reconnaissance and long-range data distribution, but the event did not include weapon firing or autonomous engagement. The capability could support monitoring around ports, shipping lanes, anchorages, and subsea infrastructure while improving maritime awareness and reducing risk to high-value naval assets.

Related topic: Germany Buys 14 AeroVironment Puma Drones to Equip Naval Special Forces with Laser Targeting.

Poland's Stormrider unmanned surface vessel operated with the frigate ORP Gen. T. Kościuszko during a NATO Task Force X demonstration, transmitting live sensor data while showcasing remote surveillance, armed patrol, and warmate loitering-munition integration (Picture source: WB Group).

StormRider is approximately 8.5 meters long and 3 meters wide, with a displacement of over three tonnes. Its hull is derived from Polish fast-boat and yacht-building practice, while propulsion is provided by a combustion engine driving a waterjet. The waterjet removes an exposed propeller and improves low-speed maneuvering in shallow or cluttered waters, although WB Group has not published maximum speed, draft, fuel load, payload allowance, or endurance in hours. An operational range of about 500 kilometers has been reported, but that figure describes vessel movement, not sensor or weapon reach. The craft is optionally manned for trials and navigation in waters where regulations require personnel aboard, and its designers have discussed operation in sea states 3 to 5; no public evidence yet shows that the upper sea-state objective has completed naval acceptance testing.

The installed surveillance equipment includes a navigation radar, sonar, echo sounder, day camera, thermal imager, and laser rangefinder. These sensors perform different tasks: radar detects and tracks surface contacts; the electro-optical head supports visual identification and evidence collection; the laser supplies range data; and the sonar and echo sounder examine the underwater environment and water depth. That combination is suited to checking harbor approaches, identifying small boats, inspecting cable or pipeline corridors, and investigating contacts detected by other ships. It does not make StormRider a wide-area ocean-surveillance asset by itself. WB Group has not disclosed radar type, frequency, mast height, detection ranges, or sonar operating modes, and the practical radar horizon of an 8.5-meter craft will be constrained by antenna and target height. The July demonstration established that collected data could be forwarded to Ankara, but public reporting does not identify the communications route, bandwidth, latency, encryption standard, or performance under jamming.

The principal direct-fire option is Arex’s ZMU-05N naval remote weapon station, normally fitted with a 12.7×99 mm M2 heavy machine gun. The mount measures 1,630 by 710 by 660 millimeters, weighs 170 kilograms without ammunition and 208 kilograms in combat condition, and uses a 24-volt power supply. Its independently stabilized sight contains a 3,840×2,160 daylight camera, a 1,280×1,024 thermal imager, and a laser rangefinder; WB Group states stabilization accuracy of 0.2 milliradians at one sigma. At 2,000 meters, 0.2 milliradians corresponds to approximately 0.4 meter of line-of-sight error before adding ammunition dispersion, barrel vibration, wind, and hull movement. The station can automatically track a designated contact and can be controlled through a secure radio link, while its components are protected against salt spray, corrosion, and icing.

A 12.7 mm machine gun gives StormRider a means of engaging small boats, exposed personnel, lightly protected vehicles near a waterfront, and some slow, low-flying unmanned aircraft. It does not provide anti-ship missile capability, area air defense, or a reliable answer to maneuvering missiles and fast aircraft. Engagement range and hit probability at sea will depend on wave motion, ammunition, visibility, and the quality of target tracking, none of which WB Group quantified for the StormRider installation. The weapon is therefore best understood as a force-protection armament for close contact rather than the vessel’s main contribution to naval combat.

For engagements beyond machine-gun distance, WB Group has shown StormRider with launch tubes for WARMATE TL unmanned aircraft. The reusable TL-R version carries day and night cameras, deploys from a sealed tube, and returns by parachute with an airbag protecting the sensor payload. The TL-C strike version has been reported with interchangeable warheads of up to two kilograms and an endurance near 45 minutes, although WB Group has not released a complete StormRider-specific performance sheet. Published data for the established WARMATE family list a 5.7-kilogram maximum takeoff weight, 1.6-meter wingspan, 30-kilometer radio-line-of-sight range, 80 km/h operating speed, and 150 km/h attack speed; these values should not automatically be applied unchanged to every tube-launched variant. The practical advantage is separation of functions: TL-R can look beyond the boat’s mast-mounted sensors, while TL-C can attack a stationary or slow-moving point target without bringing StormRider within direct-fire range.

NATO’s interest is tied to persistent Baltic surveillance rather than one Polish prototype. Task Force X-Baltic employed more than 70 air, surface and subsurface unmanned systems during three weeks of testing in June 2025, reporting 75 percent availability for eight hours daily and operating costs equal to roughly one-third of comparable frigate coverage. NATO has not published the cost assumptions behind that comparison, but the model is clear: numerous smaller sensors provide routine coverage while frigates remain available for interception, escort, and combat. Before StormRider can fill that role at fleet scale, Poland would still need to establish procurement numbers, unit cost, operator requirements, weapons-safety certification, collision-avoidance performance, recovery procedures, and resistance to electronic warfare and satellite-navigation disruption.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.