Initiated on 13 January 2025, ‘Baltic Sentry’ is building maritime surveillance and presence activity to deter rogue actor threats to the Baltic Sea’s CUI network. Two NATO task groups – Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Mine Counter Measures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) – sit centrally within this activity. These standing naval forces (SNFs) are adding more ships to their ‘orders of battle’, alongside working with NATO navies’ national task groups and individual ships, national and regional maritime operations centres (MOCs), and regional sensor networks, to strengthen maritime surveillance and deterrence to meet mission aims.
As a multi-domain activity, ‘Baltic Sentry’ will deter CUI threats by enhancing surveillance capacity and effect from seabed to space. In this operational context, with the surveillance coverage focused on non-routine shipping activity on the sea’s surface and change detection around CUI on the seabed, the MCM component offers added value.
“SNMCMG1 has been tasked within ‘Baltic Sentry’ to build a picture of what is happening not only under the surface, but also … on the surface,” Commander Erik Kockx, a Belgian Navy officer posted as Commander (COM) SNMCMG1, told media onboard his flagship, the Royal Netherlands Navy survey vessel HNLMS Luymes, during an at-sea visit in the Gulf of Finland on 20 January.
SNMCMG1 includes ships and their equipment, uncrewed systems, and MCM experts such as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) divers and at-sea command staff personnel. As COM SNMCMG1, Cdr Kockx underlined the importance of the ships themselves in meeting the ‘Baltic Sentry’ surveillance and deterrence mission requirements. “The most important assets are the ships that are present on the surface of the water, sending out a very clear message that anything that will be undertaken in this region will be seen.”
“We are the CCTVs of the seas,” Cdr Kockx added. “We are present in the Baltic Sea region to monitor what is happening, and to know what is happening …. Nothing will remain unseen in this area.”
Talking to Naval News onboard FGS Datteln – the German Navy Frankenthal-class coastal mine-hunting vessel, which is deployed with SNMCMG1 for the first half of 2025 – the ship’s commanding officer Commander Marcus Fiene underlined an MCM vessel’s (MCMV’s) contribution to surveillance activity like ‘Baltic Sentry’. “We are conducting surveillance, building the pattern of life, looking at who’s moving around and who’s crossing the Baltic, and looking especially for suspicious behaviour of any ships,” Cdr Fiene explained. “If tasked, we would also be able to conduct a survey of the seabed, looking for CUI to see if something has happened, if there is any damage.”
Underlining the regional MCM expertise the German Navy and other Baltic NATO navies bring, Cdr Fiene said “We are specialists in seabed warfare, checking the seabed for any objects whether they are mine-like objects or other. From my perspective, this adds big value to this mission.”
Cdr Fiene said NATO assets already possess a good picture of the CUI network, with this picture mapped on the ships’ electronic sea charts. Such data can be enhanced with knowledge shared by member state countries, he added. As regards how an MCMV conducts ‘change detection’ surveillance at a CUI site, Cdr Fiene explained: “We have our sonar, to find things on the seabed. Sometimes it might be difficult to find a cable, or an object that is buried. However, we are able – especially with our SeaFox MCM drone, which is equipped with a camera – to look at certain positions to check if there is any damage.”
During its deployment on ‘Baltic Sentry’, Datteln is carrying two types of Atlas Elektronik SeaFox remotely operated vehicle (ROV) – the ‘I’ (surveillance) and ‘C’ (disposal) variants. The ROVs are operated using a 1,000-metre-long fibre-optic cable, with the imagery collected via the onboard camera fed back along the same cable to the ship for display on a dedicated console in the combat information centre (CIC). The image quality presented is good enough to enable operators in the CIC to identify objects on the seabed.
Cdr Fiene also underlined the wider contribution that building an accurate surveillance picture brings for regional maritime security, including reducing risk of incidents and ensuring freedom of navigation. Discussing an MCMV’s role and impact in building this picture, including surveillance of ‘shadow fleet’ shipping, Cdr Fiene said “Our contribution to freedom of navigation is that we’re getting a picture about ships going around here, and especially that some of these ships moving around here are not in a safe condition.” Monitoring such shipping from a maritime safety perspective enables NATO forces to inform the respective local countries, allowing them to respond.
Overall, the assembled NATO forces add layers of surveillance presence, Cdr Kockx explained. “The enhanced vigilance activities taking place under ‘Baltic Sentry’ [aim] to create a picture of what is happening in Baltic Sea area.” This includes the two SNFs, plus other contributions from different NATO member states (regional and otherwise). “All those means together make a very diverse set of sensors present in this region, and we are combining them in an optimal way to reach the best results possible,” said Cdr Kockx.
“I am convinced that with the layers we are covering the Baltic Sea area with, it will be very much covered and we will know very well what is happening in this area,” Cdr Kockx continued, adding that such coverage reduces the capacity for rogue actors to deny involvement.
Alongside Luymes and Datteln, SNMCMG1 currently includes two more mine-hunting vessels, the French Navy Éridan (Tripartite)-class ship FS Croix du Sud and the Estonian Navy’s Admiral Cowan-class ship ENS Sakala.
‘Baltic Sentry’ was established following a series of incidents between October 2023 and December 2024, in which cables and pipelines were damaged at different locations across the Baltic. Rogue actor ‘shadow fleet’ ships have been a focus of investigations into the potential cause of each incident, with reports that ship anchors were dragged along the seabed.
