Eight NATO countries conduct training to respond to submarines in the Baltic Sea, the ‘front line of hybrid warfare’

Eight North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries began five days of submarine preparation training in the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe on the 9th (local time).

According to AFP on the 10th, this training, which is based in Sweden, involves naval forces, surface ships, and air patrol forces from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Finland, and conducts a simulated operation to track and detect submarines. Submarines manufactured in Germany and Sweden will also be mobilized.

The Baltic Sea is a place where there has been a series of provocations in the nature of hybrid warfare, which the West has recently blamed on Russia, and concerns are being raised that ultra-low-noise submarines, which are extremely difficult to detect, could pose a continuous threat to Western security.

In the Baltic Sea, the water depth is low and there is a lot of ship traffic, so it is considered difficult to capture signals that are key clues to tracking submarines.

Rear Admiral John Craddock, commander of NATO's submarine force, explained that submarine detection capability is a skill that will deteriorate if not trained, and emphasized, "Until we have technology that allows us to look into the ocean completely transparently, submarines will continue to pose a threat, so we must practice improving this capability."

Rear Admiral Nicolas Molito of the French Navy said that the Baltic Sea is particularly vulnerable to threats due to the large number of undersea cables and gas pipes buried there, and warned that there is a possibility that undersea infrastructure may be destroyed by unmanned submersibles and robots that can operate underwater.

In addition, he added, the mere act of a surface vessel dragging its anchor to the seabed can damage key seafloor infrastructure.

In fact, in the Baltic Sea, power cables, communication lines, and gas pipes have been damaged repeatedly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The West says the incidents are part of a hybrid Russian attack aimed at destabilizing the West and cutting off support for Ukraine, using a mix of military and non-military means to apply pressure, while scrambling to protect critical infrastructure under the sea.

However, in the case of the September 2022 incident in which three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany were blown up, a stir was caused after an investigation by German authorities revealed that a Ukrainian officer who was currently serving at the time was involved.