{"id":270705,"date":"2025-03-31T12:58:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/31\/a-nato-plane-tracks-and-dodges-russia-in-the-baltic-sea\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T12:58:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:58:04","slug":"a-nato-plane-tracks-and-dodges-russia-in-the-baltic-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/31\/a-nato-plane-tracks-and-dodges-russia-in-the-baltic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"A NATO Plane Tracks and Dodges Russia in the Baltic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/27\/multimedia\/27Baltic-Sentry-01-jcqw-promo\/27Baltic-Sentry-01-jcqw-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A NATO Plane Tracks and Dodges Russia in the Baltic Sea\" title=\"A NATO Plane Tracks and Dodges Russia in the Baltic Sea\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The French naval patrol plane descended rapidly through the clouds, leveling off at 900 feet above the Baltic Sea, practically skimming the waves. The target was a Russian warship, which came into view off the plane\u2019s port side, dark gray against a light gray horizon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The aircraft, an Atlantique 2 of the French Navy, was designed to hunt submarines and other enemy naval craft, but on this day its torpedo bay was empty and its only weapons were a high-resolution camera and other sophisticated surveillance instruments. The goal was to observe, and be seen observing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are to show that we are here,\u201d said Romain, a lieutenant commander and a member of the plane\u2019s crew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Never fully tranquil, the Baltic Sea, with a coastline heavily militarized by Northern European and Russian navies, has become an increasingly tense theater in the conflict between Moscow and the West. Later on the patrol, Russian forces attempted to jam the plane\u2019s GPS, and at one point, another Russian warship locked on to the plane with radar, a warning that it could open fire. Russian naval ships and a submarine were visible in the sea below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the main reason the French naval plane was on patrol lay underwater. Three times over the past year and a half, commercial ships are suspected of having damaged critical undersea communications cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. European officials fear that these were acts of sabotage, with the Kremlin viewed as the primary suspect, though finding hard evidence has proved difficult.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In response, NATO announced in January the start of a new program called Baltic Sentry, boosting sea and air patrols of the Baltic Sea. Though mostly reliant on NATO members with Baltic coastlines, like Sweden, Finland and Poland, the French and the British also participate, along with U.S. Marines deployed to Finland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At its inception, Baltic Sentry was hailed as an example of NATO\u2019s renewal, and so far the mission has continued uninterrupted. This is despite President Trump\u2019s frequent attacks on the 76-year-old military pact and his friendly overtures to the alliance\u2019s most vociferous opponent, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"> Since the start of Baltic Sentry \u2014 announced days before Mr. Trump took office \u2014 no further cases of suspected sabotage have occurred in the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is indicative of the alliance\u2019s ability to rapidly respond to such destabilization,\u201d U.S. Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, the supreme allied commander Europe, said of Baltic Sentry in January, \u201cand shows the strength of our unity in the face of any challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Though officially Baltic Sentry is not directed against any particular country, Russia is clearly top of mind. This was evident throughout the patrol this month aboard the French naval aircraft. At the start of its patrol, the plane plunged low to observe the movements of the first Russian warship it encountered. There is little desire to provoke the Russians, said Romain, the lieutenant commander, though occasionally things escalate. As a precaution, each crew member is issued a parachute in case a midair evacuation is needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s a touchy situation,\u201d Romain said, speaking on condition that only his first name and rank be used in accordance with French military rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the 14-hour mission, about a dozen crew members squeezed into a tight fuselage with an array of computer monitors showing satellite and radar data. The plane took off around 6 in the morning from a French airfield, traversed the length of the Baltic, from the northern coast of Germany to the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, then returned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it was the Baltiysk naval base, headquarters of Russia\u2019s Baltic Fleet, that was a focus of the crew\u2019s attention. The plane had only been in range of the base, in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, for a few minutes when the instruments onboard began to show signs of GPS jamming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Below, a Russian attack submarine and several frigates cruised the waves. A crew member used the plane\u2019s camera to zoom in on the vessels, while another flipped through a heavy reference manual of known naval craft trying to identify them. The camera also zoomed in on the base, where more craft were docked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At one point, the targeting radar of one Russian ship briefly locked onto the French plane, which remained in international waters. Though this could be an indication the ship was preparing to fire, crew members said it was likely an attempt to gauge the plane\u2019s altitude. In any case, the French military later expressed outrage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis intimidation is part of unnecessarily aggressive actions hindering freedom of navigation,\u201d said a message posted to the X account of the French military\u2019s Joint Staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe has struggled with how to respond to a series of unusual occurrences, including suspected arson attacks and explosions, as well as assassination plots, that intelligence services increasingly assess to be part of a Kremlin campaign of sabotage. Though the Kremlin has denied its agents carry out sabotage, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/05\/world\/europe\/russia-plot-dhl-planes.html\" title=\"\">intelligence officials revealed<\/a> last fall that fires at two DHL shipping hubs in Britain and Germany were part of a Russian plot to put incendiary devices aboard cargo planes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the severing of undersea cables in the Baltic that ultimately prompted NATO to act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In late December, Finnish commandos descended from helicopters and seized control of an oil tanker called the Eagle S, which officials suspected had cut electrical and data cables linking Finland and Estonia. The robust military response followed similar episodes of civilian ships damaging undersea cables. A month earlier, a Chinese-owned bulk carrier called the Yi Peng 3 was forced to anchor in the Baltic, suspected of severing two undersea fiber optic cables. This resembled a case from a year earlier, when a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship appeared to damage a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No hard evidence has emerged indicating the ships\u2019 crews intentionally damaged the undersea infrastructure, let alone that the Kremlin directed them to do so. The ships were all flagged to different countries \u2014 though none to Russia \u2014 had different owners and were headed in different directions. In other cases, an initial suspicion of sabotage has not born out. In January, authorities seized a cargo ship suspected of damaging a communications cable linking Sweden and Latvia. Investigators later determined that bad weather combined with poor seamanship likely caused the damage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What links the other cases is a modus operandi: All seemed to have dropped their anchors midvoyage, dragging them along the sea floor in a way that damaged critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Shipping experts say it is highly unlikely crew members could fail to notice and immediately address this. That connection was enough to convince some leaders that something more nefarious than simple negligence had occurred.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe should keep in mind that Russia is not omnipotent; it can\u2019t do everything,\u201d Juha Martelius, Finland\u2019s intelligence chief, said in televised remarks in January. \u201cBut it can do a lot, and therefore it\u2019s important for us both nationally and in international cooperation to be vigilant about what happens in the Baltic Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Kremlin has dismissed accusations that Russia was behind a sabotage campaign in the Baltic Sea as \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Military and shipping experts largely praised the Baltic Sentry operation, though some said it did too little. The Baltic Sea is vulnerable given Russia\u2019s access via several ports, but it is also, many point out, \u201ca NATO lake,\u201d ringed by eight members of the alliance, and therefore much easier to secure. More difficult is protecting critical infrastructure elsewhere, particularly the North Sea with its wind farms and oil infrastructure, as well as cables crossing the Atlantic Ocean from off Ireland\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Baltic Sentry also does little to interfere with Russia\u2019s so-called shadow fleet, a collection of aged tankers that, Western officials say, Moscow uses to covertly carry Russian crude around the world. The fleet is key to Russia\u2019s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, and Western nations have been largely unable to do anything about it. An exception was the ship that Finnish commandos commandeered in January. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/28\/world\/europe\/russia-ship-shadow-fleet-finland.html\" title=\"\">Officials have said<\/a> it bore the hallmarks of shadow fleet vessels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cRussia is using a shadow oil fleet to make its revenues and get around sanctions,\u201d said Justin Crump, the chief executive of a private intelligence firm, Sibylline, and a maritime security expert. \u201cWe know they\u2019re doing it, we know exactly how they\u2019re doing it and yet we\u2019re not allowed to stop it. If we were serious, we would stop it. That\u2019s the missing ingredient.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Aboard the French Atlantique 2, Romain said, crews closely monitored ships suspected of operating as part of the shadow fleet, but acknowledged there was little the military could do but watch them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is no procedure to stop them in international waters,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are no specific agreements to board them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At points during the patrol, the plane\u2019s captain received reports about ships behaving suspiciously. One had recently left the Russian port of Ust-Luga and another was headed to the Russian port of Primorsk. In each instance, the captain contacted the ships and questioned them about their journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAre you aware of the NATO activity Baltic Sentry?\u201d the captain asked each of them, then inquired whether any had seen suspicious maritime activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Each radioed back the same answer: No.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Johanna Lemola<!-- --> contributed reporting from Helsinki, Finland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/31\/world\/europe\/nato-baltic-sentry-russia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French naval patrol plane descended rapidly through the clouds, leveling off at 900 feet above the Baltic Sea, practically skimming the waves. The target was a Russian warship, which came into view off the plane\u2019s port side, dark gray against a light gray horizon. The aircraft, an Atlantique 2 of the French Navy, was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/27\/multimedia\/27Baltic-Sentry-01-jcqw-promo\/27Baltic-Sentry-01-jcqw-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169293,43301,139476,56754,137233,47767,896,3096,207795,126255,163573,7410,163751,200,137131,209,202,176926,3691,4649,1130,128440,207794],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270707,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270705\/revisions\/270707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}