Other events in Baltic States
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Thursday, 18.04.2024, 10:44
Nearly 800 personnel to take part in Open Spirit exercise in Estonia
The Estonian Navy is planning to include nearly 800 participants in this
year's Open Spirit, the biggest annual mine countermeasures exercise of the
Baltic countries which will take place in Estonia this year, and the details of
the exercise will be agreed on with allies and partner countries at a
conference that will kick off in Tallinn on Tuesday, cites LETA/BNS.
"This year's Open Spirit will include different marine areas across
Estonia, from the Sorve Peninsula to Tallinn," Cmdr. Peeter Ivask,
commander of the fleet of the Estonian Navy, said.
Nearly 20 ships and some 800 personnel will be taking part in Open Spirit
2018, which will take place on May 11-25. The main regions of activity will be
near Tallinn and the western Estonian islands of Hiiumaa, Saaremaa and Muhu.
The goal of the operation is to reduce the threat of explosive remnants of war throughout the Baltic Sea region, foster goodwill and support important relationships with defense partners in the region.
Specifically, the operation
aims to reduce the risk from maritime explosive remnants for shipping and
fisheries, exercise naval mine countermeasure operations in a challenging
environment; deploy land-based explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams in naval
mine countermeasures operations, and enhance interoperability concerning
communications, seamanship and diving operations.
Taking part in the operation will be vessels of SNMCMG1, the Baltic mine
countermeasures squadron Baltron, and partners from the Baltic Ordinance Safety
Board in Sweden who help identify the pieces of ordnance using information and
photographs received from the vessels.
The multinational naval mine clearance and ordnance disposal mission is
hosted on a yearly rotational basis by one of three Baltic nations – Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania.
In the past 20 years more than 1,200 explosive devices have been found in
Estonia's waters and defused.