Under the guise of a scientific collaboration to study climate change, the Argentine government has given the US oceanographic vessel R/V Roger Revelle the green light to operate in its sovereign waters starting March 5. However, behind the salinity and temperature measurements lies a data transfer with a dual civil-military purpose that directly affects national security in an area of colonial dispute .

Science as a vector of naval intelligence

The R/V Roger Revelle is not a civilian vessel. Owned by the United States Navy and funded by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the NSF ( National Science Foundation) , this ship is a sister ship to the R/V Atlantis (famous for the search for the ARA San Juan). Its equipment, which includes high-precision multibeam echo sounders , allows for comprehensive mapping of the seabed and the determination of underwater acoustics.

For a submariner, this data is the "map of the battlefield." Knowing the speed of sound and pressure variations allows them to identify "shadow zones" where a submarine can remain undetected. In a South Atlantic militarized by NATO—an organization the current Libertarian government aspires to join—providing this information to a strategic ally of the United Kingdom is, in geopolitical terms, a surrender of sovereignty.

Decree 941 and the illusion of strategic intelligence

The recent Decree 941/25 , which proposes a reform of the national intelligence system, mentions among its objectives the identification of risks to natural resources and their free availability. However, operational reality contradicts this proposal.

While the decree creates the General Directorate of Intelligence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (DIGIEMCO), the Argentine defense system remains hamstrung by Resolution 381/2006 . This regulation expressly prohibits the Armed Forces from carrying out counterintelligence activities, even within their own facilities or to protect critical state information from external powers.

A country without an information "shield".

The paradox is alarming: the State authorizes a foreign power to collect data on our continental shelf, but lacks the legal counterintelligence mechanisms to audit what information is actually being leaked to external command centers .

The GO-SHIP program, of which the Roger Revelle mission is a part, is comprised almost exclusively of NATO nations. The data obtained—which also includes the location of biomass and schools of fish—ends up on public servers shared by countries that maintain the illegal occupation of our Malvinas Islands.

Allowing the US Navy to map our sea while the ban on military counterintelligence remains in place is not cooperation; it is facilitating third-party control over the heritage of all Argentinians. This vulnerability is not only budgetary, it is political and regulatory.