NATO Maritime Forces Respond to Russian Activity

In the second half of March, Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 monitored Russian naval activity in the English Channel
along with Allies France and Great Britain.This operation supported maritime situational awareness beginning on the week of 16 March 2020.Besides the SNMG1 flagship,HNoMS Otto Sverdrup, other Group members participating with the Allies were HMDS Absalon;HMS Sutherland; and FGS Rhoen.*
According to CDRE Yugve Skoglund, Commander, SNMG1:
Free access and entry to the Channel is critical to NATO.There has been a substantial non-allied military activity in the area lately.Our job as a NATO Force, together with our Allies,is to deliver NATO'S 'deter and defend'  message and provide maritime security.Our presence in the English Channel in the past few weeks is exactly what the standing maritime forces are made for... We are here to sustain NATO'S essential work even when all nations are facing tough times.*
Also in late March, three of the four US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers forward-deployed to Rota,Spain conducted a drill in the Eastern Atlantic with two USN P8-A Poseidon Maritime Surveillance Aircraft from Commander,Task Force 67,Sigonella, Italy. Said CAPT William "BP" Pennington, commodore of CTF 67:
By keeping our top assets, our Sailors, healthy, our flight operations continue to support the Fleet, demonstrating the tight-knit integration between our surface and air assets, and without a doubt, our unparalleled ability to flawlessly execute coordinated high-end naval warfare.*

Big NATO Naval Drills Staged in Baltic

Standing NATO Maritime Group One and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One have been staging Exercise Northern Coasts 16 in the Baltic Sea.Led by Germany,it is a large exercise providing relevant training in an undisclosed fictitious yet realistic scenario,NATO said.As many as 38 naval units,including submarines,have traveled from 16 NATO and partner countries and are focusing on both surface and undersea warfare.
Rear Admiral Jose E. Delgado of the Spanish Navy says the naval forces will train as a single Task Group.By training together,NATO and partners strengthen their ability to effectively combine national assets in order to face any possible challenges in a maritime environment.This major exercise will prove NATO Standing Forces' capability to rapidly grow to a bigger multinational Task Group whenever and wherever it could be demanded,RADM Delgado said.The drills have been staged in the Baltic since 2007.*
Flagship for RADM Delgado is the frigate ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104).Germany,Belgium and Portugal are also contributing frigates to the effort.The US Navy has sent Sailors from Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8,as well as the P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft for undersea warfare drills.EODMU 8 began participating on 2 September,exercising mine countermeasures and counter-IED response capabilities,building interoperability and sharing best practices with the Allies and partners.*
Those participating in Exercise Northern Coasts 16 include Spain,Portugal,Germany,France,Belgium,the Netherlands,Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania,Canada,the US,Denmark,Norway and NATO partners Sweden and Finland.

Navy Deploys New P8-A Aircraft to Tense Region

The US Navy has made the first deployment of its new P-8A Poseidon Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft,or MMA,to Kadena Air Base,Okinawa,Japan.Two of the large,combat-ready reconaissance warplanes took off from Norfolk,Virginia recently,headed into a very tense East Asian theatre of operations.In light of China's new Air Defence Identification Zone over the East China Sea,the aircraft are now most welcome by Japan,a country that almost kicked the US out of Okinawa a few years ago.*
The Navy took delivery of the 12th P8-A on 31 October.It is a modified Boeing 737-800 ERX,featuring a fully connected,state of the art open architecture mission system that,combined with the next generation sensors and highly reliable airframe will dramatically improve Anti-Submarine and Anti-Surface Warfare capabilties.The nine-person crew will have at its disposal an internal,five-station weapons bay;4 wing pylons and 2 centerline pylons;a rotary reloadable,pneumatically controlled sonobuoy launcher;and a Net Ready suite of Link-11/Link-16,Internet Protocol,Common Data Link(CDL) that is FORCEnet compliant.*
The P8-A is armed with joint attack munitions;cruise missiles;mines;and torpedoes.The Open Mission System Architecture is a reconfigurable and expandable system facilitating easier,more affordable upgrades.*
The P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft secures the Navy's future in long-range maritime patrol capability.It provides more combat capability from a smaller force and less infrastructure,while focusing on worldwide responsiveness and interoperability with both traditional manned forces and evolving unmanned sensors.*
The P-8 is a true multi-mission platform,according to Rear Admiral Matt Carter,Patrol and Reconaissance commander.The number of submarines in the world is increasing rapidly.Other countries are either building or purchasing advanced,quiet and extremely hard to find submarines and we need to be able to match that technology to be able to detect them.*
Boeing(BA)