Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) has arrived in Dundee, Scotland, for a scheduled port visit.

Currently, SNMG1 comprises flagship FGS Berlin (A1411) and FGS Erfurt (F262) (Germany), HDMS Peter Willemoes (F362) (Denmark), and HNLMS Van Amstel (F831) (The Netherlands).

SNMG1 is one of the four Standing NATO Maritime Groups, led by NATO Maritime Command in Northwood, United Kingdom.

According to NATO:

“Last week, SNMG1 participated in NATO exercise Dynamic Guard in the North Sea together with units from the Italian Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Netherlands Air Force, Royal Norwegian Air Force, and the U.S. Navy. Multinational interaction during exercises at sea increases interoperability among forces, increases shared knowledge of maritime tactics, and promotes professionalism among sailors, cultural understanding, and trust. Port visits demonstrate the strong relationship between NATO nations while also providing an opportunity to replenish supplies.”

Commodore, Standing NATO Maritime Group One Commander A. van de Sande, said:

“A combined port visit is a way to maintain the existing strong relationships. Interaction and building relationships between sailors from around the world, but also with the local communities of allied nations during port visits, make us stand together.”

Following the port visit, SNMG1 will participate in the long-planned NATO exercise Brilliant Jump 2022 which will demonstrate the readiness and mobility of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, the spearhead of the NATO Response Force.

Exercise Brilliant Jump will then lead directly into the bi-annual Norwegian-led exercise Cold Response 2022, which runs from 14 March to 1 April 2022. CR 22 is a defensive exercise under a NATO Article 5 scenario.

“The aim is to train the reinforcement of allies/partners under challenging climatic conditions, enhancing the readiness and capabilities of the participating forces. Up to 35,000 troops from some 28 nations will participate, including non-NATO partner nations, Finland and Sweden. The Standing NATO Maritime Groups are a ready force, continuously available to NATO to perform operational missions as required. The Groups provide continuous maritime capability from peace to conflict, establish alliance presence and maintain a high level of readiness.”

Tom Dunlop
Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

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52 COMMENTS

  1. Just looking at that short mast, made me think about days of old and the bloke sent up to the crows nest, bet it was a right job in stormy weather.

    • Nowadays with H&S its a nightmare if you need to go up the mast outside of the main radar cage ( Which can be reached from internal access) on say a T23.

      You need to have a rope access rescue team onboard with all the kit in case you fall and get snagged up on your harness. In most cases you do the risk assessment and the risk mitigation answer you come back with is “wait until you get alongside and use a cherry picker!” Obviously if Operations dictate that you need to go up, you go up but its usually voluntarily. You don’t want someone nervous clambering around up there unsure of there footing, dropping stuff or in the worst case freezing and being unable to move ( Seen that happen and it took 30mins of talking and coaxing to get them to move from the yard arm back to the ladder)

      It never bothered me clambering around on the yard arms so even as a silly old git Warrant I used to go up if needed to fix and repair stuff. if nothing else the view is great!

      • Hello Gunbuster. Some of the H&S stuff is enough to make one laugh(derisively) or cry! I was just thinking if, in a war situation, the safety officer was to say he needed to vet your Safety File before firing weapons in a hot situation!!😂 Reminds me of the scene in Zulu Dawn(Isandlwana movie as opposed to Zulu,Rorke’s Drift) in which at the height of the battle the Sergeant handing out ammo insists on a requisition before issuing the bullets!

  2. Won’t Nicola say there has been an invasion or something?

    Or is she in or out of NATO?

    But she is in the EU (in her head) so probably thinks there is an EU army or something that needs her shipbuilding prowess from Fergusons?

  3. Dundee will be a great run ashore for those sailors. I hope the Police look after them, this is Dundee after all.

        • I’m in Dundee fairly regularly to watch Dundee FC (for my sins) and its not a patch on the old Dundee. There are still some absolute sights, some poor places right enough but its a lot more swept up than it was. ‘Back in the day’ Fat Sam’s and the Coconut Grove were a sight to behold and the place well deserved its reputation. I’m sure the boys and girls will have a great run ashore.

          • Oh now that was a good night out…Minibus to and from,,,table full of 70 bob for the night…Hangover from hell the following morning.

          • There is still Lourenzos in Dunfs so you’ll have somewhere to ‘throw shapes’ if you’re up this part of the country mate. 😉

          • Way to cold and its grim up north… Here it’s been a pleasant 19 degs at 0600 rising to 32 this afternoon… Very nice!

          • Hey you ! I’ll have you know its a tropical 9 degrees here, ‘Hands to bronzing stations’ or what !!!

            Saying that, it was in the negatives last night, I was camping and even this morning trying to clean my pot the water was freezing after a minute or so of contact on stainless steel. Its character building apparently. 🙄

    • Dundee is a student city, plenty of good night life and it’s pretty compact so I’ve no doubt they’ll have a great run ashore.

    • These stereotypes seem rather lazy, cliched, insulting and more importantly inaccurate. Much regeneration work has happened in the city over the years and as has already been pointed out it has a bustling nightlight life driven by a large student population (Abertay University being famous for training a whole swathe of the computer game industry and Dundee University being a former college of St Andrews which is just a short journey away).

      • My birthplace of Liverpool still has the same cliches associated with it. However ask any Jack or Jenny about a run ashore in Liverpool and the dits will be legendary.

    • I’m sure those Jack Tars will be piling into the local cafe and tucking into those delightful marmalade sandwiches and Desperate Dan cow pies.

  4. Reports coming out of Finland of an increase of Russian citizens living thier homland because of threats of Marshall law.
    Finland is also seriously considering NATO membership.

        • You’re right. Both are. They’ve both have been participating in manoeuvres with NATO and potentially joining.

          • Indeed Sweden would have to be defended whatever the relationship I just hope the planners and politicians are drawing up how that will happen the last thing we want is to have to respond again under threat of being nuked we need to make sure he knows that he will be crossing the line we draw.

  5. This is the best explanation i’ve found for how Russians see what is happening in Ukraine. It’s depressing but truth often is.
    This is a comment from a Russian born person who emigrated.
    “Yesterday I heard an important thing from you – you said that most Russians do not support Putin. I believe that you communicate with many Russians, and on this basis a distorted impression is created. This happens because you communicate with atypical Russians – cultured, educated, fluent in English. I assure you that such Russians are a minority. The vast majority – more than 80% are not like that. I have lived in Russia for 45 years, and I have an idea about this country and its inhabitants, and I will try to explain my opinion to you, and then you draw your own conclusions. I want to draw you a portrait of the average Russian – one of those 80%. He was educated in a Soviet school. The history teacher taught not history, but the mythology of the Soviet Union, according to which Russia never attacked anyone, but only waged defensive
    wars. Throughout his childhood and youth, he received information exclusively from state sources – naked propaganda of communism. He watched films about the exploits of Red Army soldiers, unaware of the fact that Stalin and Hitler started the war together as allies in 1939. He does not understand what democracy is for. None of his ancestors – neither his father, nor his grandfather, nor his great-grandfather – ever lived in a democracy. His great-great-
    grandfather was a peasant in slavery to a local landowner. The short period of democracy from 1991 to 1998 is associated with poverty, disorder and the
    power of bandits in the streets. He does not associate the growth of the Russian economy in the early 2000s with the liberalization of legislation in the 1990s. He is confident that the economy has risen thanks to the arrival of Putin.
    He does not understand the need for a change of power and the need to separate the branches of power. For him, the understandable and natural way of power is the tsar. He has never been abroad. He does not have a passport to leave Russia. He doesn’t have enough money to afford traveling. And at this moment it is already definitely clear that he will never go anywhere. He is not into politics. He gets his information from a television filled with government
    propaganda. He uses the internet solely to watch viral and funny videos.
    He is convinced that the countries of the West, the USA and Europe envy Russia because of its natural resources – minerals, forests, vast territory. These enemies of Russia dream of attacking and taking all the riches of Russia for themselves. The level of intelligence is average, the ability for critical thinking, information analysis is practically equal to zero.
    What do you think, if a person with such a set of properties is exposed to aggressive propaganda 24/7 for 20 years, will he have common sense and the ability to think? I guess definitely not. I think, more precisely, I see that the majority of Russians have gone crazy. They support aggressive military actions in Ukraine. They send their sons to fight and give their lives. Oddly enough, they do not realize the full implications of this step. They will be very surprised at
    the fact that they will have to pay a high price for this. Including their dead sons.

    • You are describing a peasant. Putin will be deposed by other elites. That is how dictators are removed. The Generals near assassinated Hitler, Putin is not untouchable.

      • No, not at all.

        Vladimir is an Exec MBA, he does well and has not only done PM work but has trained the trainer on Intl PM (IT).

        He’s been in business with with Olegs, mum a UKR – Fmr headmistress of No13, a leading secondary school. Olegs(No13) is also an MBA. Olegs and Vladimir are tight – they create money in Latvia.

        Olegs cousin – A – is 50/50 Rus/UKR brought up in Riga, logistics MSc after school at No13, got a house, car, girl, good job.

        Vlad came into the lesson with A after COP and asked if I thought Rīgans would fight for Russia following a RusMil attack on Latvia.

        I popped the Q. To A.

        “Fucking right we will.”

        Nuff said.

        • Another perspective is the 1917 Revolutions were started in the big cities. Your peasant living in the outback does not really care who the current Tsar/ General Secretary/ President is. Same shit – different name/ flag.
          Your city residents tend to be more educated and quite like their goods and services offered by Western companies. We see this with the current flight of Russians into Finland – they are your educated wealthy.
          If Putin loses the support of the cities then he is in serious trouble.

      • It is worthwhile remembering the the July 20th plotters against Hitler, (and all of the others) were supporters of Alldeutsche Bewegung – they agreed with Hitler’s motivations for starting the war, they just disagreed with how he was running the show – it would not have bought peace, they wanted Austria, Sudetenland, part of France, and a huge chunk of Poland. If they had have killed Hitler, we may have ended up fighting an enemy led by someone with functioning brain cells.

    • There are an awfully lot of well paid Russians who work in the oil industry and frequent the bars of the far East, and other places. They seem arrogant, flash the cash. They perhaps have been bought by the wealth, but from interacting with some , it’s almost a white supremacist type of attitude. Some of them do think they are the strong master race. Able to ensure the cold, the pain. Perhaps it’s the vodka but they endure the misery because they love a strong man. Its something about them. The same perhaps as the gun toting yanks in the small towns hunting and a fishing love the QAnon comedy.

      • Indeed Europe needs to defend itself there are far too many similarities between redneck Russians and redneck Americans to guarantee we can endlessly rely on their support and in the case of a Trumpist President I’m sure there would be a temptation to cut some sort of a deal to make sure the US doesn’t have to risk applying its nuclear umbrella and still sell it to its people as making America Great again after all when they were great it was due to all that lovely money they made out of a war. For some like Putin war is an opportunity and unsurprisingly for some like Trump war is an opportunity too as long both will agree, as it’s other who are paying the price they demand.

    • Be careful David, I was told a was essentially a xenophobic idiot because I suggested that even a totalitarian dictator needed a base of support within the population. I was told how dare I insult 100million Russians by suggesting that a reasonable number of them supported Putin. Even when I pointed out that even neutral and western polling agencies showed Putin had around 60 % support. I was told that I needed to talk to some Russians ( because what one person says is representative of a whole population) and stop being and arrogant idiot. I tried to point out I was discussing the evidence base.. but that just got me being accused of being a flat earth anti vaccination type. I pointed out that there is a very good and strong theory around the two dimensional universe/hologram theory and so yes the world could be flat…. it did not go well.

      • I watched a you tube video today of someone showing Russians in the street pictures from Ukraine and the replies were astounding. Some said I don’t believe it. Some said it’s not true I’ve been watching the tv and that’s not what’s happening. Some said it’s the Ukraine’s fault and putin had to step in. Most of all the all spoke highly of putin and how great he is.
        There only seemed to be 2 out the 12 or so spoken to that actually believed the photos or had a clue what was going on.
        Oh and one said I can’t comment, I am anti war but I can’t say what I think.
        I get it though. Imagine suddenly someone showed up and said most things you are told, see on the tv, read in the papers is not true. You wouldn’t believe them.

        • This issue is one of the key things that worries me about this current situation – the whole mantra that we are against Putin and certainly not the Russian people: I fear as soon as Putin has enough control in Ukraine, and the 100s of civilians killed each day turns into a ‘mere’ 10s of ‘dissidents’ ‘disappeared’ each day, the world will start to feel sorry that people in Moscow can’t shop in IKEA and they will drop the sanctions.

          I hope I am wrong, but I would be willing to bet none of the sanctions that have been put in place will still be in effect by Christmas; let’s not forget, the diplomats the UK sent home after Salisbury, were all back in the country within a year. The Russian embassy in London now has more diplomatic staff than it did before Salisbury.

          I have mentioned it before on this site, over the last few years I have had and lost a number of friends in Russia – all professional, educated people, and each of them support Putin and had quite a warped idea of Russia and Russian culture’s position in the world. It was fine talking to them about other subjects, but when the subject of Russia was the topic, the conversations were like talking to a member of C18 about Britain.

          • Exactly and certainly Putin is expecting what you say to happen. Even Johnson now is trying to build up all that he is doing while even those few Oligarchs we choose to sanction have 18 mths to redistribute their I’ll gotten gains and while France and Germany take their boats we let them live comfortably live in Surrey while apparently ‘leading’ the anti Putin sanctions. All fluff with Boris and why Putin thinks he can keep upping the anti.

        • The problem is we in the west always look at the world through our lense and that’s one of free press and information as well a vey embedded culture of personal freedom. This is especially true of the British, we pretty much invented the idea of holding leaders to account ( we’ve killed a fair few off). So we can’t really get our head around the fact a lot of the rest of the world don’t see personal freedom in the same way. It’s why we messed up in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember sitting up on a night shift with an Iraqi consultant, this was during golf war 2 and he said, the west is making a mistake, you just don’t understand, Iraq needs to be ruled with a fist and the moment a leader does not show that crushing strength they will be torn down and the county falls to anarchy… this was a well educated consultants ED dr who was clear his nation could only be run by a dictator and that’s what people wanted as it’s better no freedom than death and destruction. I was also good friends with another Dr from the Middle East who’s family had servants that were effectively reliant on his family for the roof over their heads, health care and education…he simply could not see that the fact these families where essentially utterly dependent and in effective bondage to his family was wrong…. he said if they did not work for us they would have nothing.

          We really do in the west completely miss understand the rest of the worlds relationship with the idea of free liberal democracy…it’s why we have lost so much influence to China etc ( half of African counties did not vote to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom, not even South Africa).

          • I agree with a lot of what you say Jonathan, I’ve had similar conversations and while the individuals involved loved the idea of democracy and living in the UK, they were pretty adamant that Afghanistan needed to have that ‘strong man’ running the country.

            I’m a big fan of democracy myself but I accept its more the ‘lest worst’ rather than the best way to run a country and its not for everyone. ‘We’ have plenty dealings with countries with other systems, Saudi, UAE seem pretty obvious ones, but we’ve been happy enough to deal with Russia and David Cameron was practically dropping to his knees to blow Xi a while back.

            Horses for courses and all that.

        • Hey we even have a Russian Strictly dancer here who was trying to defend it till she saw the damage it was doing to her reputation and changed tack. She was applying the Russian propaganda about how Russian speakers in the Donbas were being so abused despite the fact many Russian speakers from there who have had to head west claim totally otherwise. Geez Zalensky himself is a Russian speaker from the east. Shows how easy it is to identify with propaganda from a home you wish to be proud of and at least initially see opposition to the line as against you personally.

      • How the hell did this person think he got not and maintained power. Yes we know now just how corrupt it all is and elections probably mean nothing now but for most of his time in power he still needed a large proportion of voters to support him esp in the earlier days. He still has a large support base whatever the actual percentage and now that he has completely shut down independent media that amount may fluctuate esp if he is losing many troops but the fact is unless it’s a massive amount the average mourning mother won’t even know how many others there are. This is a very long term plan and at each stage he is taking away the peoples right to know and think for themselves while generating propaganda causes for the people to get angry at those outside Russia. He knows this is his one big advantage in whatever he plans next and with idiots like the one you refer too having to infer equivalence to everything that happens you can see why. We are so limited by what the people will allow us to do so we couldn’t put troops in Ukraine before the event or after he has no such limitation now that they are back in Soviet mode.

  6. In other watery news, I see the US has finally picked that F35C off the bottom of the sea: I quote:
    Navy Recovers Sunken F-35 Jet That Crashed Off the Deck of a Carrier into the South China Sea
    The U.S. Navy announced that it has recovered the F-35C Lightning II fighter that crashed into the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in January before sliding off and sinking into the South China Sea.
    The service announced that a team from 7th Fleet’s Task Force 75 and the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving embarked aboard the commercial diving vessel Picasso in order to recover the jet from a depth of 12,400 feet. “The aircraft was recovered using a CURV-21, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which attached specialized rigging and lift lines to the aircraft,” the Navy’s statement said.

  7. A very interesting statement to make.

    Blinken warns against ‘opening a Pandora’s box’
    The US secretary of state has been speaking from Brussels, where he said “the stakes here are very real”.
     
    Antony Blinken said the principles of democracy and sovereignty of peaceful countries are now “under assault” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
     
    “If we allow those principles to be violated with impunity, then we’re opening a Pandora’s box in every corner of the world for this to happen again and again and again,” he said.
     
    He also warned that peace and security “will be gone” if action is not taken. 
    Mr Blinken praised what he called the swift actions of the European Union, saying the solidarity of Western countries must be sustained until the war stops.

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-nuclear-nato-kyiv-zelenskiy-live-updates-12541713

    • This the same Secretary of State who has allowed the Russians to dictate the terms of the Iran agreement that will be announced very shortly. He may have credibility in Europe, but he has very little credibility in the United States.

      • I’m not sure I understand what you mean by this. Is it the nuclear deal that was agreed that you disagree with or him as a person.
        I don’t think putin actually puts too much thought into his actions just by what the white house says. Republicans or democrats seems to make no difference to authoritarian leaders action.
        But as we live in democracy and free speech we are allowed our own opinions and to say what we think.

  8. These ships were in Stavanger the weekend before last with the crews enjoying the local amenities. HMS Northumberland was moored further away from the town centre. A couple of days ago a Royal Navy Merlin was buzzing around the local area. All back to the norm now of oil rig support vessels, ferries and the buzzing of the local S92 rotary taxi service…

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