Feature: Baltic Sea countries considering extensive anti-ship missile coverage

A concept map showing near total Baltic coverage from coastal countries with anti-ship coastal launchers. (Diehl Defence)

For decades the Baltic Sea has served as a delicate buffer zone between a growing number of NATO members and Russia, more recently becoming a new front line for symmetric and asymmetric threats underwater, on the surface, and in the air.

However, the war in Ukraine, matched with ever-increasing focus on global power competition, resulted in a proliferation of nefarious activities in the Baltic Sea, particularly given the location of Russia's Baltic Fleet based in St Petersburg and the enclave of Kaliningrad.

Some of the most notable contemporary threats are asymmetric, from undersea cable cutting by civilian surface vessels linked to Russia and the People's Republic of China to overt and clandestine activities by naval and special operations forces.

As a result, NATO continues to pay close attention to the Baltic Sea, and on 14 January co-hosted the ‘Summit of Baltic Sea Allies' in Helsinki, Finland, to consider how best to react to an increasingly aggravated security situation.

At the event, NATO officially launched a new military activity designated Baltic Sentry to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure and, as it said in a press release on the day “… improve allies' ability to respond to destabilising acts”.

According to NATO Baltic Sentry is designed to see frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and other surveillance assets as well as “deployment of new technologies including naval drones”, working to “improve the ability to protect critical undersea infrastructure [CUI] and respond if required”.