On 18th November, hours after two communication cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, 30 NATO vessels and 4,000 military personnel took to the same body of water for one of northern Europe’s largest naval exercises.
The 12-day ‘Freezing Winds’ drill was part of a push to step up the transatlantic defence alliance’s protection of infrastructure in waters that carry 15% of global shipping traffic and are seen as increasingly vulnerable to attack.
The Baltic Sea is bordered by eight NATO countries and Russia. There have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage to the 40-odd telecommunication cables and critical gas pipelines that run along its relatively shallow seabed since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“NATO is stepping up patrols, … allies are investing in innovative technologies that can help better secure these assets,” said Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesperson for NATO’s Allied Maritime Command.
Yet the ease with which a ship’s anchor can slice through a cable, coupled with the often-treacherous sea conditions, makes actual prevention of such attacks almost impossible.
On day three of the exercise, German Navy commander Beata Król tried to launch an underwater drone from her de-mining vessel, the Weilheim, to inspect the seabed as a winter storm raged.
After a 30-minute delay in launching it, the drone had frozen and could not operate.
“The batteries got cold,” she said, shrugging, as she waited for the equipment to warm up.
Having spent years detonating World War Two-era mines on the Baltic seabed, NATO is repurposing its six-vessel minehunting fleet to also monitor suspicious underwater activity, with its hull-mounted sonar scanning the seabed, drones able to take pictures and video under the water, and specialist divers on hand.
Security sources say the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, was responsible for severing the two undersea cables in Swedish economic waters between Nov. 17 and 18 by dragging its anchor on the seabed.
As of Monday, it was stationary in Danish economic waters, being watched by NATO members’ naval ships, having been urged by Sweden to return to be investigated. Some politicians had accused it of sabotage, but no authority had shown evidence that its actions were deliberate.
China has said that it is ready to assist in the investigation, while its ally Russia has denied involvement in any of the Baltic infrastructure incidents.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
