Expect foreign ships and Irish armoured vehicles as part of unprecedented EPC security build-up

FOREIGN NAVAL SHIPS AND aircraft will help Ireland secure the two major summits in Dublin this week.

Massive amounts of Irish and some foreign security services will be part of the biggest security operation in the history of the State. It will include a presence at airports and ports, on roads and city streets and off the Irish coast and on open ocean. 

At least one foreign naval ship will take up position in the seas off Ireland to assist the Irish naval service, as An Garda Síochána and the Irish Defence Forces will have thousands of gardaí and hundreds troops involved in the mission to secure the event. 

The Defence Forces have said that more than 700 soldiers, sailors and aircrew will form part of the operation. 

Starting on Tuesday at 7am, gardaí will move into positions around critical places, such as the Convention Centre on Dublin’s docklands and lock down the area. 

Out at sea, Irish naval vessels will take up position off the Dublin coast. Irish navy ships do not have air defence radar systems to detect threats such as drones, but they will be joined by a foreign naval vessel. 

This deployment is secret, but as with previous operations in Dublin and Cork in July and Wicklow in September, it is understood that the French navy will provide an air defence frigate which will stay outside Irish territorial waters.

The British also assisted with a destroyer and a helicopter during the event in September in Druids Glen. This helped the Irish Air Corps armed helicopters and aircraft to run a counter drone mission off Dublin. 

During the recent Donald Trump visit to Dublin and Clare, a US Air Force AWACs early warning aircraft took up position off the south-east coast. The British have similar capability, as do the French. 

A French ship, the Frigate the FC Aconit, was spotted sailing from the Irish Sea into the Clyde, near Faslane Naval Base in Scotland this week. This is the type of ship previously used off Dublin.

Manholes and drains

Searches of manholes and drains have been taking place across Dublin city and routes to be used to ferry world leaders into the city from Dublin Airport and Baldonnell. 

There will be a major operation in Shannon Airport in which Defence Forces and gardaí from across the region, including specialist armed officers, will secure parking for aircraft carrying foreign dignitaries. 

Such is the volume of aircraft arriving into Dublin, they will have to be flown from the capital to Shannon Airport to be kept safe while the events are ongoing. Gardaí and soldiers will also be deployed there. 

Defence Forces engineers soldiers were out around Dublin on Sunday carrying out specialist searches to augment garda search teams. 

Security forces will also begin to secure Dublin Airport and Baldonnell. It is understood that, along with counter drone equipment, the military will also deploy units of mechanised infantry in heavily armed MOWAG armoured personnel carriers at locations. 

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The garda organisation will have uniform and armed plain clothes officers involved.

Throughout the four-day operation there will be regular large motorbike escort teams moving through Dublin en route to the Convention Centre. 

Garda specialist firearms teams, like the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Armed Support Unit (ASU) will provide a tactical element should they be needed. ASU also will be running counter drone operations. 

The Defence Forces have dubbed the operation ‘Operation Fianna’, which will run out of a central command and control node in McKee Barracks in Dublin. 

The garda name for the mission is Operation Brehon and numerous C70 (Aid to the Civil Power) requests have been made to the Defence Forces to secure the locations. 

“The operation will integrate and synchronise specialist capabilities across the land, maritime and air domains, delivering a coordinated, intelligence-led security operation in support of An Garda Síochána and other State agencies,” the Defence Forces said in a statement. 

Specialist assets include such Explosive Ordnance Disposal or bomb squad specialists, engineer search teams, and members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) – the Irish military Special Operations Force.

Their role will likely be close protection teams, specialist intervention and specialist snipers as well as securing locations.

The Defence Forces will also deploy Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems or anti-drone equipment and there will be a naval and Air Corps element.

Intelligence cooperation

One key area of international cooperation by intelligence services, both in An Garda Síochána and the Irish Defence Forces, will be around trying to determine threats from home and abroad and limit the ability to cause chaos.

Much of the military and security planning has been heavily informed by a similar event in Denmark in 2025. 

Copenhagen Airport was forced to shut down after sightings of suspected drones in the buildup to the city’s hosting of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in October last year. 

Ireland has also learned from past incidents such as the drone incursion during the Volodymyr Zelenskyy in December 2025.

For intelligence operatives it will be vital to get quick and credible information.

Sources abroad have said there is little sign of a major attack in Dublin, although there are concerns around hybrid warfare incidents.

At home, security sources sound a more pessimistic tone and said they believe there will be disruption in the coming days. One key consideration and deployment will be of garda and military cyber experts assisted by civilian technicians.