Baltic Naval Squadron
Latvia Latvia
Lithuania Lithuania
4-6 ships
The Baltic Naval Squadron ( BALTRON ) is a tri-national minesweepers Association of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
History
In 1995, the Baltic navies the first joint exercise " Amber Sea 95 " by and it emerged considerations a further cooperation.
On 12 October 1996 the Minister of Defence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania agreed to set up a joint minesweeping organization of their naval forces. On 16 April 1998, Riga, the governments of the Baltic States signed the official commissioning ceremony of the Association 28 August 1998 headquarters in Tallinn.
On 12 June 1998 in Brussels (from 1999 a member of NATO ) and Sweden agreed to the Baltic States, NATO member states Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands and Norway and the countries Finland, Poland support their armed forces for the tri-national Baltic minesweeping Association, the German Navy took over the overall coordination.
Germany were delivered in October 2000, two mine ships Lindau class to Estonia, one with the current name EML Sulev ( M312 ). Denmark provided the command and control ship EML Admiral Pitka ( A230 ) of the Hvidbjørnen class to the Estonian Navy.
In September 2001, a training center for the Navy divers in Liepaja, Latvia, service was provided.
Organization
The Baltic Naval Squadron, abbreviated BALTRON, consists of a mine countermeasures unit, which remain at least 6 months in service and of a tri-national staff of the Baltic Forces in Tallinn ( Estonia) is conducted. The aim is to improve the coordination between the navies of the States to carry out the joint mine clearance and initially also to promote cooperation with the NATO countries, which also promoted the admission of the Baltic states in 2004 as member countries into NATO.
BALTRON consists of a joint staff of the Baltic States and from ships of the navies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Each state assigns to a BALTRON to two mine countermeasures vessels. An additional ship performs the tasks of a command and support platform. The communication language of the Marine Association is English.
BALTRON works closely with the minesweeping forces of NATO and participates in the international " Open Spirit" part - mine countermeasures operations.
Inserts
According to the objectives of the establishment of BALTRON the main task is the establishment of a minesweeper Association, which is to operate in the territorial waters of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The States concerned shall consequently de-mining operations in the waters of the Baltic States. In the course of these operations are mines, grenades and torpedoes, which date from the time of the last two world wars, tracked, collected and destroyed.
BALTRON must be capable of the following tasks:
- Detect underground mines and moored mines using sonar and ROV
- Clear ground mines
- Perform surface and air defense shooting shooting
- Training of seamanship and maneuvering
- Search and rescue
- Training of ship safety at sea and in ports
- Perform diving operations
- Detection of the maritime situation in connection with coastal monitoring stations in the Baltic States
Maneuvers and operations
The following maneuvers and operations take place annually in the waters of the Baltic States:
- MCOP - mine counter measures
- Open Spirit - mine counter measures and maneuvers
- Amber Sea - Baltic naval exercises
Commanders ( COMBALTRON )
References
- Baltic Defence College BALTDEFCOL