Home Sea HMS Ramsey joins NATO fleet

HMS Ramsey joins NATO fleet

June 1, 2018

HMS Ramsey has joined a NATO mine clearance taskforce in the Baltic Sea.

Recently, HMS Ramsey left HMNB Clyde to proceed northwards around Scotland and then across the North Sea to join with the NATO task force SNMCMG1 (Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measure Group 1); a standing taskforce dedicated to disposing of mines in the Baltic Sea.

According to a Royal Navy release:

“On 30th May Ramsey got stuck into her first NATO exercise with gusto; a Mass Casualty Exercise where one of the taskforce simulates a collision with another, taking damage and multiple casualties for the taskforce to respond to.

Ramsey was one of the first responders sending her first aid team over to the stricken vessel and manoeuvring in close proximity to the rest of the taskforce, covering the simulated damaged ship.”

Recently, SNMCMG1 joined mine countermeasures vessels and experts from multiple nations in Tallinn, Estonia to conduct historical ordnance clearance operation Open Spirit in the waters near Estonia.

Open Spirit is held each year in the Baltic Sea and organized by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on a rotating basis and is designed to clear historical sea mines and other live ordnance on the seafloor left over from the First and Second World Wars.

The operation also serves as an opportunity for nations to work together, building interoperability and mine countermeasures expertise in a challenging environment. The operation runs May 11th to May 25th.

SNMCMG1 is currently led by Belgian Navy Commander Peter Ramboer from the group flagship HNLMS Mercuur and includes German mine hunter FGS Bad Bevensen, Belgian mine hunter BNS Narcis, Royal Netherlands Navy mine hunter HNLMS Urk and Royal Norwegian Navy minesweeper HNoMS Otra.