Britain to lead military exercise with eight nations in Baltic region

Britain will send nearly 2,000 members of its armed forces to the Baltic Sea for its biggest exercise with nations in the region next month.

Another 1,000 sailor and marines from eight nations -- Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden -- will participate in the Joint Expeditionary Force drills, according to a release Wednesday from the U.K. Ministry of Defense.

The JEF was established at the 2014 NATO Summit and launched a year later. It became fully operational with the signing of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding in June 2018.

The two-month Baltic Protector mission is the first large-scale exercise by the JEF, and Britain's largest task group in more than 15 years in the Baltics, according to the Royal Navy.

Defense ministers and representatives from JEF countries will meet this week to discuss the deployment and test the mechanisms for the Baltic Protector.

At full strength, the joint force has the capability to mobilize more than 10,000 personnel in support of a variety of missions to deliver rapid and far-reaching effect.

Personnel from the British Army and Royal Air Force will take part, even though Baltic Protector is maritime focused.

Flagship HMS Albion, one of the British Navy's two amphibious assault ships, will lead a force that includes the frigate HMS Kent, more than half a dozen P2000 patrol boats, six helicopters, an elite dive team to search for mines, and Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade, including fast assault craft, field guns and combat engineers.

In all, 20 naval vessels from the countries will participate in exercises that "will underline the importance of protecting Europe at a time of increased threat," according to a British government release.

"As Britain prepares to leave the EU, our unwavering commitment to European security and stability is more important than ever," Defense Minister Gavin Williamson said. "Deploying our world class sailors and marines to the Baltic Sea, alongside our international allies, firmly underlines Britain's leading role in Europe.

Exercises will include maritime tactical, amphibious, amphibious raiding practice, shore landings and naval maneuvers.

"It is a huge privilege to command the Baltic Protector deployment, and I am greatly looking forward to working with our close friends and partners from the other eight Joint Expeditionary Force partner nations," Commodore James Parkin, commander of the Task Group, said. "Together, this UK-led Maritime Task Group will conduct a series of demanding amphibious exercises and maritime security patrols across the Baltic Sea that will serve to improve the way we operate together and our readiness to respond to crisis.

The JEF can work with multinational organizations, including NATO, the United Nations, the EU and Northern Group in combat operations, deterrence or humanitarian support.

During the Ebola outbreak, Britain, the Netherlands and Norway combined resources on land, at sea and in the air.

Last year, 22 NATO and partner nations participated in the U.S.-led Exercise Baltic Operations. BALTOPS began in 1972.

Russian navy navigating stormy seas
Moscow (AFP) April 4, 2019 - Russian officials regularly announce new mega-projects involving the navy, but in reality, the force is battling problems with state financing, ageing shipyards, and delays in fulfilling orders, experts say.

The Kremlin is keen to display the strength of its armed forces -- organising massive war games on NATO borders, backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, or showing off its "invincible" hypersonic missiles.

It also relies heavily on hyperbole.

During Navy Day celebrations last July, President Vladimir Putin delivered the landmark news that the navy would receive 26 new ships from local builders by the end of the year.

But in fact, experts say, only eight of the ships that joined the fleet last year were new -- the other 18 were old vessels that had been repaired.

Such overblown statements frustrate independent military analyst Alexander Golts.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu "has seriously said that over the last six years, the fleet has grown by 120 ships. He must be counting the lifeboats," he joked.

The exact number is not known but Igor Delanoe, defence analyst at the Franco-Russian Observatory, estimates that about 44 ships entered into service between 2013 and 2018.

Russia's naval shipbuilding is a combination of public and private endeavour.

The state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation owns about 40 shipbuilding companies, but has been criticised for poor quality of work.

Seeking to expand its global influence, Moscow launched an ambitious 10-year programme in 2011 to modernise its armed forces, including the navy.

Delanoe says none of the planned new ships was launched on schedule.

- 'Problems with discipline' -

Examples of recent difficulties include the renovation of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur submarine that took more than 10 years, and the 14-year-long construction of the Ivan Gren landing ship.

The most striking example of disastrous delays is the construction of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, announced by officials as the Russian navy's most advanced ship.

It took 12 years to be completed before going into service in July 2018. Eight such frigates were planned, but only one has gone into service -- one of the projects hit hard by the crisis in Russia's relations with Ukraine.

Since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by the conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed some 13,000, Kiev has ceased military cooperation with Russia.

This caused problems since Ukraine used to make the gas turbine engines used in numerous Russian ships.

Moscow switched to a Russian manufacturer, NPO Saturn, but it failed to deliver the first replacement engines in 2017 as planned.

Another problem for shipbuilding is "irregular funding" for naval projects, says Delanoe, with Russian shipyards often reluctant to take on state contracts because "they don't know when they'll get paid".

Details on the military budget are hard to find, but Russia's state arms programme, GPV-2027, has allocated about 20 trillion rubles ($306 billion) to the defence sector for 2018-2027, with the navy expected to receive about 12 percent.

There are also problems with ensuring health and safety for shipyard workers.

In October last year, a 15-metre crane collapsed onto the bridge of the Admiral Kuznetsov, the navy's only aircraft carrier, while it was undergoing repairs and modernisation near the Arctic city of Murmansk.

It emerged that the accident was caused by a power cut that stopped the pumps and caused the floating dock where the ship was moored to sink.

One worker was killed and the Admiral Kuznetsov risks being out of service beyond the original 2021 deadline.

This was no isolated incident. In the last six years, three fires have been reported on submarines under repair.

"There are problems with discipline, with respect for safety standards, that are quite abnormal," said Delanoe.

- Syria role -

Russia nevertheless has "some reasons to congratulate itself", said Andrei Frolov, editor-in-chief of the specialised Arm Exports journal.

"We are managing to put ships on the water... and despite the competition, our ships continue to sell abroad."

Russia sells mostly submarines, but does not publish numbers on arms sales.

Among its transactions in recent years, the country has sold four submarines to Algeria and six to Vietnam, frigates to Vietnam and India, and four patrol boats last year to Algeria.

Amid a complex geopolitical situation and budgetary constraints, the Russian navy is gradually adapting and starting to build smaller ships that are heavily armed.

In a boon for the navy, the military operation in Syria that Russia launched in September 2015 to back Assad, saw the navy playing an active role.

The navy "played a strategic and geopolitical role for the first time in decades" after the collapse of the USSR, said Frolov.

"You can laugh about the Admiral Kuznetsov or the sinking dock... but if you look back at the state the navy was in up to 1997, you can say that the way it is now is the best possible result."

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