NATO recently demonstrated its capability to control the Baltic Sea through a missile system deployment involving the US Navy and Danish forces on the Danish island of Bornholm.
Central to this demonstration was the deployment of the MRC Typhon missile system, which includes the SM-6 air defence missile adapted for anti-shipping roles and Tomahawk subsonic cruise missiles for land targets.
This system, capable of reaching ranges over 1,500 kilometres, signifies a significant advancement in mid-range military capabilities following the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019.
This exercise marked the second deployment of the Typhon system to Bornholm, the first occurring in September 2023. The missile system was transported to Bornholm Airport on 5 May 2024, and rehearsals involving US Navy sailors and Danish military personnel followed.
Conducted under the ‘US Naval Forces Europe-Africa/US 6th Fleet, the exercise aimed to “enhance security and stability in Europe and Africa”.
The containerised missile launcher provides an advantage over traditional shipboard launchers by allowing rapid shore-based deployments.
So Russia has lost the Black Sea, The Baltic and the Bearing Sea now, Putins a real genius 4D chess player, it took the Russian empire hundreds of years to get access to all those seas and this muppet lost it all in two years 😀
Ukraine managed to block Russian in the Black Sea with a couple of storm shadows and a few jet skis.
I can’t see him forcing the Baltic any time soon 😀
As far as Baltic sea goes NATO has always had escalation dominance in situation of general war between us and has had the ability to close the sea off to us so nothing has changed, the advancement of missile technology make it too dangerous for any surface ship within the Baltic for both sides. Since the European will do nothing without the US taking the lead we currently have nothing to worry about, our ships will operate as per normal. It would be interesting to see the royal navy try to force blockage during peace time but we know you… Read more »
Don’t worry your ships won’t be blockaded in the Channel either… in peace time. Not quite clear why the Royal Navy would blockade in peacetime at all really so an irrelevance. Fact is however a great deal of the Baltic would in fact be very operable for NATO vessels in wartime just not for Russian ones now that Finland and Sweden are members their chess game of attempting to for example to take Gotland in a strategic move or the Finish coastline is gone. Do like the petulant dismissal of the ‘Europeans’ mind, so very Soviet in nature it’s just… Read more »
If you think eastern Baltic would still be open to NATO in general war you have not learned lesson we learn in black sea the hard way so good luck to you. Russian Navy is not strong enough in Baltic to force passage during war, to try would just be silly, even during soviet times it was not possible, like i already said, nato has always had escalation dominance there. I don’t understand this excitement of Finland/ Sweden becoming NATO, they have always been defacto NATO, if Finland decides to let 3rd party military bases then they will need to… Read more »
The difference between a defacto ally & a real ally is one has signed up to fight, the other might or might not. The defacto ally though is unlikely to support the other side. If Sweden had not joined NATO & war broke out, they could stay out of it, but would likely keep supplying arms to NATO members. Right now, fighting is mainly confined to eastern Ukraine. Should some NATO troops become directly involved, there is potential that Russia sees that as war with NATO. If Russia responds by directly attacking nearby NATO members then all NATO will respond.… Read more »
Freedom of navigation is the order of the day for most of us (Turkey working under a different convention), and Russia can sail its warships through the English Channel if it wants.
I agree that this is a bit of a non-story, but it’s important to test out capabilities that one might need if war spreads. It’s also part of deterrence to stop war from spreading in the first place.