NATO Participates in Finnish Exercise

Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1) completed training with the Finnish Navy over two days at the end of April.

The FinnishNavy's Coastal Fleet held the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise inthe Archipelago Sea, with participants from the Finnish Navy’s 4th MineCountermeasures Squadron and SNMCMG1.

The exercise isorganized at sea, which makes it possible to conduct the exercise withouthaving close contact between the different crews. Due to the threat fromCOVID-19, no port visits are conducted in Finland.

Thiscooperation between SNMCMG1 and the Finnish Navy is based on the FinnishKatanpää-Class mine countermeasure vessels being part of NATO Response Force(NRF) pool for 2020.

From the Finnish side, the exercise involvedthe command echelon of the 4th Mine Countermeasures Squadron and Katanpää-Classmine countermeasure vessel Purunpää.

From NATO side,SNMCMG1 brought the German flagship Donau, the Dutch minehunter Willemstad andthe Norwegian minesweeper Otra.

“Finland is one of NATO’s closest partners,sharing common interests of regional stability and maritime security in theBaltic Sea region. I am glad for the opportunity to train and interact with theFinnish Navy,” said Commander of Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One,Commander S.G. Henning Knudsen-Hauge.

“The training exercise consists of a seriesof smaller exercises that focus on not only on mine countermeasures operations,but also on seamanship and coastal navigation. The smaller exercises havebeen planned to account for the situation caused by COVID-19, so that therewill be no close contact between the crews,” commented Commander of the Finnish4th Mine Countermeasures Squadron, Commander Juhani Lehtimäki.

SNMCMG1 is one of fourstanding forces that comprise the maritime component of the Very High ReadinessJoint Task Force (VJTF), which is part of the NATO Response Force. To respondto contingency situations additional forces can be added to these groups, withthe NATO command staff onboard and the ships of the group as the nucleus,capable of providing timely support to NATO operations.