A Swedish CB90-class fast assault boat approaches the dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall during exercise Steadfast Defender on March 6, 2024. The Swedish military will participate in the annual BALTOPS exercise for the first time as a NATO member. (Danielle Serocki/U.S. Navy)
An annual NATO military exercise focused this year on amphibious operations and mine countermeasures in the Baltic region begins this week with Sweden participating for the first time as a member of the alliance.
The 53rd iteration of the exercise starts Friday and takes place amid high tensions, as the NATO accession of Sweden and neighboring Finland has left Russia as the only nonmember among the nine countries that border the Baltic Sea.
Baltic Operations 24 will feature amphibious, gunnery, anti-submarine, air defense and mine clearance operations, according to a statement from U.S. 6th Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, or STRIKEFORNATO. Explosive ordnance disposal, unmanned underwater and surface vehicle exercises, and medical response scenarios also are planned.
The exercise includes 20 NATO allies, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. More than 50 ships and 85 aircraft, and about 9,000 personnel will participate, the Navy said. The exercise ends June 20.
Italian navy ship ITS San Marco, Polish navy ship ORP Torun, the British navy's HMS Albion and USS Mount Whitney sail the Baltic Sea during exercise Baltic Operations in 2023. This year's BALTOPS, the first for Sweden since its NATO accession, will take place June 7-20. (U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet)
Although Sweden has taken part in Baltic Operations, or BALTOPS, for more than a decade, its presence as a NATO member bolsters the alliance as it sends “a clear deterrence message,” Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, commander of U.S. 6th Fleet and STRIKEFORNATO, said in the statement.
The Kremlin’s Baltic fleet is based in Kaliningrad, Russia’s only Baltic Sea port that is ice-free year-round.
Experts have called for NATO to reassess security vulnerabilities in the region, particularly against potential attacks on undersea infrastructure, as Moscow tries to exert influence in the region and protect sea access to Kaliningrad.
The exercise also will include naval assets from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the first time in recent history that an asset associated with the Pacific theater has operated in the U.S. Navy Europe area of operations, NATO said in a separate statement Wednesday.
BALTOPS will be led by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/6th Fleet and commanded by STRIKEFORNATO, headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal.
