RAMSTEIN, Germany - Eighteen Allies and Partners are participating in the international maritime-focused Exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2019 in the Baltic region from 8-20 June 2019.
Conducted since 1971, BALTOPS brings together a robust professional constellation of maritime, ground and air forces in order to strengthen combined capabilities required for immediate crisis response and regional stability in multi-domain operations. U.S. Second Fleet will lead this year’s BALTOPS 2019 and participants will include NATO Allies Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States as well as NATO Partners Finland and Sweden. NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force aircraft will also control elements of the air operations.
Maritime, ground, and air force personnel from participating nations will practice and train skills in the fields of air defence, maritime interdiction, anti-subsurface warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine counter measures, and amphibious operations in a joint environment to ensure regional security. This unique training opportunity is designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s interconnected oceans.
Participants in this multinational, maritime-focused exercise create and sustain partnerships, training in a broad range of mission areas to strengthen the capabilities of units to partake in multi-domain operations. More importantly, this exercise strengthens their ability to operate as a cohesive joint and combined force, ready to respond to emerging crisis.
Responsible for the northern airspace of European NATO Allies, NATO’s participating Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany maintains a Static Air Defence Centre, conducting 24/7 peacetime Air Policing, maintaining a Deployable Air Operations Centre capability for operational contingency tasks, and supporting high visibility regional events and training series like BALTOPS.
Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office