Russia still has significant maritime capabilities, Thomas Edward Ishee, commander of BALTOPS 24, has said ahead of the largest-ever exercise in the Baltic Sea.
“My assessment is that Russia still has some significant capability in the maritime. And certainly, in anti-access and area denial they are a capable nation that has these capabilities,” the US Navy vice admiral told a press conference in Klaipėda on Wednesday.
This, he said, is something that NATO allies need to be concerned about as they work to defend the alliance, including the recently joined Finland and Sweden that share much of the Baltic Sea coast.
“It plays into how we would defend all of the Baltic nations that are NATO nations in the region,” Ishee said. “The specific capabilities I won’t get into, but we’re very much aware of what is going on in the Black Sea, in the war between Russia and Ukraine.”
“Seeing some of the developments that had happened in the Black Sea both on the Russian side and the Ukrainian side, and making sure that we understand those lessons, we’re prepared to defend against those threats, should they be used in the Baltic Sea,” the BALTOPS 24 commander added.
BALTOPS 24, the largest military exercise ever held in the Baltic Sea, starts with a pre-sail conference taking place in Klaipėda on Wednesday and Thursday. This is the second time the event has been organised in Lithuania.
According to the military, 30 allied ships, manned by over 4,000 sailors, marines, naval aviators and other naval specialists, are currently moored in Klaipėda.
The active phase of the exercise at sea will take place on June 7–20.
BALTOPS 24 will focus on landing operations and will take place mainly in the central part of the Baltic Sea, according to Ishee.
“Amphibious operations are going to be our main focus in this BALTOPS. I think there’s a great opportunity to learn and relearn a lot about this war-fighting domain,” he said.
“There will be a lot of air defence exercises, a lot of anti-surface exercises, some anti-submarine exercises, some amphibious operations when we will actually put some forces ashore in various places and we have several amphibious task groups that are participating in this,” the commander added.
BALTOPS is organised by the US Naval Forces Europe and Africa and the US Sixth Fleet, with command and control provided by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO).
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