COPENHAGEN, Jan 30 (Reuters) - In 2023, Mads Petersen,

owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car

to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus 43 degrees

Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit).

The cold soon drained the drone's power.

"The battery only lasted for three minutes," he said.

Governments in the world's far north are seeking to overcome

such challenges as the region comes increasingly into the

geopolitical spotlight.

Russia and China have stepped up military activity in the

Arctic, while NATO states in the region are reporting more acts

of sabotage on energy and communications lines. President Donald

Trump has recently revived U.S. claims to Greenland.

The conflict in Ukraine, meanwhile, has shown that unmanned

aircraft can provide critical intelligence and strike

capabilities on the battlefield.

The United States, which sees the Arctic as crucial for

territorial defence and its early warning system against nuclear

attacks, said in a July strategy document it would focus on

unmanned technology to counter Chinese-Russian collaboration

there. Russian and Chinese bomber planes flew together off the

coast of Alaska in July and their coast guard ships sailed

together through the Bering Strait in October.

But drones - whether multicopters or fixed wing models - are

vulnerable. Only the largest, long-range models have enough

power for anti-icing systems like those used by aircraft. Cold,

fog, rain or snow can cause a malfunction or crash.

With countries boosting military spending, a Reuters survey

of 14 companies and six defence ministries and armed forces in

northern Europe and America shows the industry working at pace

to buy or develop drones that can endure icy conditions, and

increasing urgency among NATO states to acquire them.

"We are all having to catch up with Ukraine and Russia,"

said General Major Lars Lervik, head of the Norwegian Army.

No global data is publicly available on states' military

drone fleets, but Lervik said the war in Ukraine has given

Moscow and Kyiv valuable experience of drone technology that

NATO countries lack.

Russia, whose military began building up a drone fleet in

the Arctic in 2014, took an early lead in the race to control

the Northern Sea Route, a passage between Europe and Asia along

Russia's northern coast, said James Patton Rogers, a drone

expert at Cornell University and a UN and NATO policy adviser.

Russia's Zala Aero, part of the Kalashnikov Group, already

offers drones designed for extreme Arctic conditions and Russia

has also said its long-range S-70 Okhotnik combat drone can

operate at minus 12 Celsius and will be deployed there.

"We're moving towards a point where Russia will not only

have unarmed surveillance drone systems along the Northern Sea

Route, but potentially armed systems that are constantly

patrolling those areas as well," said Rogers.

He said NATO had been slow to devise a coherent response.

NATO said it has strengthened its presence in the Arctic and set

up a new  Command to keep Atlantic lines free and secure; NATO

states are investing in new air and maritime capabilities.

The Trump administration did not respond to a request for

comment on that but said in an email the U.S. would continue to

prioritise security in the Western Hemisphere and its presence

in the Arctic.

The U.S. has already invested heavily in long-range drones

to monitor and gather real-time information from the Arctic - a

vast region where radar and satellite coverage are limited.

These craft can operate at lower altitudes for surveillance, but

if they do they face the same risk of icing as smaller models.

The risk to drones is highest in temperatures just either

side of freezing - between 8 degrees and minus 10 degrees

Celsius, according to drone pilots and experts. A thin layer of

ice forms on propellers and wings and destroys the aerodynamic.

KAMIKAZE OPTION?

Weather-resistant models are not the only solution. The U.S.

Department of Defense has said it will buy tens of thousands of

cheap drones with a kamikaze brief as part of a programme

started in 2023 that will focus on the Indo-Pacific. It did not

respond to a question on whether it may risk littering the

Arctic with drone debris.

"Sometimes it's actually cheaper to ... build something

super cheap where we can just have thousands of them, and we

don't care if we lose some," said Gregory Falco, head of the

Aerospace Adversary Lab, a U.S. research centre that designs

defensive and offensive capabilities for the Department of

Defense.

The governments of Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Russia and

Canada did not respond to requests for comment on environmental

impacts. Finland's environment ministry declined to comment.

Norway's climate ministry said the loss of drones in the

Arctic would be detrimental in a "particularly vulnerable"

region. From this month, it has banned most drone use in much of

the Svalbard archipelago.

Sweden's defence ministry said war itself is destructive for

the environment; a credible defence capability that prevents

conflicts through deterrence "is ultimately better for the

environment than dealing with the devastation of war."

The cheapest small drones used for basic tactical

reconnaissance cost as little as $3,000 up to around $35,000,

according to experts.

Bigger models are more robust but more expensive.

Medium-sized tactical drones, which normally fly at a radius of

up to 200 km (124 miles), cost between $250,000 and $5 million.

Large unmanned long-range drones that operate like airplanes can

cost more than $200 million each.

Many of the cheaper models can be bought on the open market,

but the Ukraine conflict has demonstrated their limitations in

winter. NATO states are looking to test them more in the Arctic,

said drone expert Rogers, who acts as a policy adviser to the

alliance.

In northern Europe, new NATO member Finland has been a first

mover, using drones to patrol its border with Russia as part of

a proposed "drone wall" aimed at protecting NATO's northeastern

flank.

Finland in 2023 added 2,000 small drones to its army's fleet

of around 250 older ones. These can, according to their French

manufacturer Parrot, fly in minus 36 degrees Celsius.

They have been used in winter exercises in the north, the

Finnish army says.

Other countries with territory in the region are drawing up

plans to purchase winter-proof drones, budgeting tens or

hundreds of millions of dollars.

Denmark's Joint Arctic Command, which is responsible for

security in and around Greenland, does not have any drones.

Copenhagen last year set aside 2.7 billion Danish crowns ($381

million) for two long-range models to operate in the Arctic and

this week said it would buy two further drones. The country has

also set aside 60 million crowns for smaller models, but gave no

further details.

Canada is buying 24 winter-capable medium-sized drones and

40 small ones for its navy, the Canadian Armed Forces said in an

email. The forces currently operate around 150 older small and

medium-sized drones.

Norway, which is NATO's monitor for a vast 2 million sq km

area of the North Atlantic used by the Russian Northern Fleet's

nuclear submarines, says it will invest in long-range

surveillance drones for a planned Arctic base.

It also plans to buy weather-resistant ones worth $25-$40

million for its army by 2030, according to its 2023-2030

procurement plan. The defence ministry declined further comment.

Sweden has said it plans to scale up capabilities in the

area as part of a rapid rise in defence spending, without giving

details.

"Warfare is going to get much faster in the future," said

Mike Fabey, U.S. editor at Janes Fighting Ships, a reference

book for each country's defence assets. "The drones give you

that ability to understand the situation more quickly, at a time

when it's going to be about not seconds, but nanoseconds."

STARTUPS AND FIELD TESTS

The weatherproof model Finland bought can be purchased on

the open market for around $9,000. It was designed for the U.S.

Army and made in the United States by Paris-listed Parrot SA,

which is majority-owned by its CEO, Henri Seydoux.

Parrot says on its website it has sold models to 19

countries including Sweden and Norway, but did not respond to

requests for further comment.

Beyond this, governments and large aerospace firms are

mainly turning to startups and small companies for innovative

solutions, Stacy Cummings, head of NATO's support and

procurement agency, told Reuters. NATO will hold a session this

year to bring together governments and companies.

Manufacturers of small and medium-sized multicopter drones

are experimenting with blade shapes: for instance, propellers

that spin so fast that snow or ice is instantly transformed into

gas.

It is easier to avoid bad weather with smaller drones

because they don't fly very far, experts say. Larger models have

ranges up to hundreds of miles and fixed wings, which makes it

harder to dodge rain and snow.

"There are definitely some challenges, especially with

humidity and icing conditions as well as some of the electronics

as they get colder," Alex Larade, a Canadian lieutenant serving

in the artillery unit of NATO's multinational brigade in Latvia,

told Reuters during an exercise with a fixed-wing Blackjack

drone in a muddy field in Adazi, Latvia in November.

"At this time, we haven't had the experience in the Arctic

to actually see just how far we can push the air vehicle," he

said. Boeing ( BA ) subsidiary Insitu, which made the craft,

said the drone has not been rated for icing conditions, but it

is working with Norwegian start-up Ubiq Aerospace to optimize

it.

One approach that Ubiq is testing is to add a mesh of carbon

fibre composite which can be switched on to conduct just enough

heat to the wing to melt any ice forming.

Ubiq said it has recently signed contracts to provide

anti-icing protection for drones with Boeing ( BA ) and Lockheed Martin ( LMT )

worth over $5 million, and has deals for anti-icing

drone products with the Norwegian armed forces and U.S. defense

industry companies Textron Systems and Northrop Grumman ( NOC )

.

Finland-based company Nordic Drones also uses an automated

system that helps the craft detect - and dodge - areas with fog

or snow. That company was bought last year by Patria, a

Finnish-Norwegian joint venture in which the Finnish state holds

a majority.

($1 = 7.0956 Danish crowns)