The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) has wrapped up Operation Nordic Warden, a crucial effort aimed at protecting northern Europe’s undersea infrastructure.
This month-long operation, initiated in early June, saw ten JEF nations—Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—collaborate to secure vital underwater networks.
With over 30 ships and various air assets deployed, the mission focused on monitoring and responding to potential threats in the Baltic Sea, Danish waters, and other key maritime areas in northern Europe. The Royal Norwegian Air Force’s P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft were also integral to the operation.
Today marks the end of #NORDICWARDEN 🏁
The activity involved:
34 assets from JEF Participant Nations 🚢
8 maritime patrol aircraft sorties ✈️
99 reports exchanged 🤝
33 Suspicious vessels tracked 🔎➕JEF PNs demonstrating collective action in protecting CUI 🛡️#JEFtogether pic.twitter.com/WOZ70okZQU
— The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) (@JEFnations) June 28, 2024
During the operation, JEF forces conducted 34 naval missions, executed eight maritime patrol aircraft sorties, exchanged 99 reports, and tracked 33 suspicious vessels.
Group Captain Kevin Latchman, JEF’s director of communications, previously spoke of the strategic importance of the mission, stating, “Nordic Warden builds on the success of JEF’s first-ever response option last year, also focused on critical undersea infrastructure, and is part of a systematic approach to understand and respond to potential threats.”
The significance of this operation is underscored by the potential impact of any disruption to these networks. Any interruption, whether due to sabotage or accidental damage, could severely affect the interconnected economies of northern Europe, potentially leaving millions without internet access.
As Operation Nordic Warden concludes, it has not only enhanced the security of critical undersea assets but also reinforced the collaborative efforts of JEF nations in protecting their shared interests.
They don’t appear to have solved the issue with Wind Turbines interferring with land based radars yet so we’re going to need more persistant presence at sea and in the air as more windfarms are constructed. Perhaps repurpose some of the Oil Infra as radar stations or give them tax breaks to host military radars, ouch!!!!! 😋 Or they will need to coat the towers and blade in RAM makeing them more expensive. In the US they’ve had issues with wind farms cluttering the images from the metorologic radars meaing they can’t detect when tornados hit the ground and provide… Read more »
E7 should have no issues with this.
Gr8 how many will we get? 3 I think I assume they’ll all be dedicate to the UK and not deployed elsewhere. Either way its a hidden cost of renewables and we’re going to need to dedicate more resources to cover it. Which we must do.
Also quite funny I was watching a video where they stuck RAM tiles made of cutting edge nanomaterial to a wind turbine tower, pretty much defense grade tech. How long before those get rippled off by potential bad actors and used to against us in some form!!!
The JEF should be the UK’s number one alliance, we should do more to harmonies with it. Given the problems with Russia we should perhaps look at the JEF forming a corp sized force rather than a division for action within the Nordic Theatre.