The Royal Swedish Navy (RSwN) has deployed a ship formally into a NATO task group, and under alliance command, for the first time since Sweden formally joined NATO in March 2024.
The RSwN corvette HSwMS Visby has joined NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ maritime surveillance activity in the Baltic Sea. ‘Baltic Sentry’ is designed to deter threats by state and non-state actors to critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) on the Baltic seabed. It was established on 13 January 2025 as NATO’s region-wide response to a range of CUI-related incidents in the Baltic since October 2023. In these incidents, seabed cables and pipelines have been damaged (purportedly, according to officials from NATO and member state countries, by commercial ships dragging their anchors across the seabed).
Announcing Visby’s participation in Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) said on social media: “The Visby-class corvette joins the mission to enhance NATO’s maritime presence, boosting situational awareness and protecting CUI.”
In an RSwN statement, Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Johan Norlén said “For the first time, we are deploying surface ships from the Swedish Navy under direct command of NATO …. We do that after less than a year in the alliance, and show that we are a credible and reliable ally.”
Alongside Visby, Sweden is contributing various types of support ship and reconnaissance aircraft to the activity. These other assets will remain under Swedish national command.
SNMG1 is the centrepiece of the maritime component of the ‘Baltic Sentry’ surveillance activity, alongside NATO’s other North Atlantic-focused standing naval force, Standing NATO Mine Counter Measures Group 1 (SNMCMG1). These task groups are commanded by MARCOM, which is co-ordinating the activity’s naval presence.
The ‘Baltic Sentry’ command structure also includes: Allied Command Operations, as overall command; Joint Force Command Brunssum, which is leading the activity in the wider task force context, including asset synchronisation at the joint and multi-domain levels; and Commander Task Force Baltic, the German Navy’s new tactical maritime headquarters, which will have tactical control of ships working under MARCOM command.
by Dr. Lee Willett
