Masked officers from Finland’s coast guard, police and defence forces descended by fast-rope onto a target vessel in the Gulf of Finland on Thursday in a dramatic exercise aimed at deterring – and, if necessary, neutralising – attempts to sabotage critical under-sea infrastructure. The boarding was part of the wider MARSEC EU 26 manoeuvres but, unlike the command-centre simulations, this was a full-contact rehearsal in real sea conditions. Commander Ilja Iljin of the Coast Guard explained that the Baltic has suffered several unexplained ruptures to power and telecom cables since 2022. In at least one incident, a drifting anchor was blamed; in others, investigators suspect deliberate interference. “The pattern is clear: hostile actors test our response times. Today’s drill shows that we can reach and secure a suspect ship within an hour,” he said. During the exercise, teams swept every compartment of the Finnish ice-breaker Polaris, secured the bridge, extracted the crew for questioning and winched improvised explosive devices off-deck for disposal. Police Chief-Inspector Juha Hietala noted that the drill also validated multi-agency communication protocols introduced after Finland joined NATO. The government intends to translate the lessons into law. A separate bill now before Parliament would authorise the Border Guard to stop and inspect stateless vessels in Finland’s Exclusive Economic Zone and to deploy counter-drone measures against unmanned underwater vehicles. Business travellers crossing the Baltic can therefore expect increased patrol presence and occasional spot-checks, particularly near subsea cable corridors. Companies with time-critical freight on Ro-Ro or container services should factor potential delays into their logistics planning, especially this coming winter when ice conditions slow maritime traffic. While the operation captured headlines for its Hollywood optics, officials stress that deterrence is the goal. “If an adversary knows we can board in minutes, they may think twice before dragging an anchor across a data cable,” Commander Iljin concluded.
Source: Reuters (via Internazionale)
