Protecting shipping routes and critical maritime infrastructure, seeking mines, defending against landing and combating diversion acts – specified elements are included in the script of the Freezing Winds ‘25’ exercise conducted off the coast of Finland. They are attended by 5 1000 soldiers and sailors, as well as more than 20 ships, including 2 units from Poland.
– In the presumption of the organizers of the “Freezing Winds” is to test the ability to interact NATO forces in difficult, winter conditions. Although the weather in Finland is not bad at the moment, the temperature oscillates within zero degrees, but the forecasts may inactive change, according to Mr. Kamil Kalina, commander ORP ‘Necko’ and PKW “Note” (quota is made up of crew members and additional embarked seafarers).
The Polish trawler is now part of SNMCMG1, 1 of 2 NATO mine teams and operates together with respective another ships in the north-eastern part of the Baltic. November passed to crews primarily under the sign of HODOPS (Historical Ordnance Disposal Operations) in the Gulf of Finland. It was about searching for and destroying mines from planet War II. “In total, the squad tracked 24 of them, 22 of them being neutralized,” Mr Kalina recalls. That's right. HODOPS was a general test before the biggest exercises this year, organized by the Finnish Navy.
By the weekend, more than 20 ships from 11 NATO states checked in at Turku Harbor. These included frigates from Denmark and Germany, as well as SNMCMG1: Latvian command vessel LVNS ‘Virsaitis’ or French mine destroyer FS ‘Sagittaire’.
Poland, in addition to the aforementioned ORP ‘Necko’, represents ORP ‘Albatros’. It's 1 of 3 Kormoran II-type mine destroyers that service in the 8th Coast defence Fleet. The ship is equipped, among another things, with a number of submarines, a marine cannon OSU-35K and a combat management strategy SCOT-M. In his class, he is considered 1 of the most modern in the world. Now he is waiting for a test on a hard navigational watering around Finland.
The individual episodes of the exercise were located in the Archipelago Sea, a part of the Baltic that has nearly 40,000 smaller and larger islands, as well as in the Hanko Peninsula area, which is located at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. Apart from activities at sea, the Finns besides planned episodes on land, airspace and cybernetic.
Participants shall focus on the protection of key shipping routes, the search for mines, the repression of diversion acts and the defence against landing operations. “Freezing Winds ‘25’ shows the commitment of the Natovian countries and Finland to defend the Baltic Sea in all situations. We are able to conduct operations rapidly and efficiently together with our allies, and exercises specified as these have a immense impact on the maintenance and improvement of this kind of capabilities,” emphasises Mr. A full of 5,000 sailors and soldiers were active in the maneuvers.
“Freezing Winds” exercises closely coincide with NATO’s operation ‘Baltic Sentry’. It involves monitoring by allied navy the situation on shipping routes and around critical infrastructure. And specified tasks were besides carried out by the ORP “Necko”. The pattern of operation is simple: the ship goes to the area indicated by Command Task Force Baltic (CTF B) i.e. the recently established Alliance Command for the Baltic, and its crew conducts reflection of passing ships, connects with them, collects information about the way and destination of the cruise, as well as photograph material. In a word: he demonstrates that NATO is awake and ready to act.
Of course, the Alliance's activity off the coast of Finland has activated Russia. "In connection with the launch of the Freezing Winds '25 maneuvers, the Russian side refreshed the communicative of an "aggressive NATO" whose expansion to Finland and Sweden "provides tensions in the region". Again, we can anticipate disinformation messages in the Polish infosfera, linking narratives about "militarizing aggressive Poland" with messages about "expansive NATO", which "forces Russia to defend" – warned Dr. Michał Marek, a political scientist and disinformation specialist from the National investigation Institute of NASK (Science and Academic Computer Network) on the X portal.
Exercises off the coast of Finland will last until 5 December.
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