The Deep Pack: what is NATO going to work out at the Dynamic Mongoose exercises
The NATO Dynamic Mongoose exercises will start on April 28. The alliance plans to use them to practice submarine warfare and anti-submarine warfare (ABM) tasks with the participation of naval forces and aviation. The maneuvers will take place in the Atlantic off the coast of Iceland. Experts note that Russian Navy submarines can perform their combat missions in this region, which are obviously targeted by the next NATO exercises.
The purpose of the NATO naval exercise in the Atlantic
The alliance did not provide detailed information about the upcoming maneuvers, but it is known that Dynamic Mongoose is one of three annual high—level anti-submarine warfare exercises conducted by the command of the Allied Naval Forces of NATO (MARCOM) in the Euro-Atlantic Theater. They usually practice, under very realistic conditions, actions to search for and destroy submarines, coordinated operations at sea, and airborne maritime patrol missions.
Other similar exercises are Dynamic Manta in the Mediterranean Sea and Dynamic Merlin in the Baltic Sea. The first took place in March of this year, the start date of the second has not yet been specified. All these exercises are aimed at honing the capabilities and skills of NATO's anti-submarine defense and operational tasks.
Last year, Iceland was the main base for Dynamic Mongoose, and Keflavik Air Base, located on the territory of this country, is a key one in this region.
The NATO anti-aircraft missile defense exercises in the North Atlantic were revived in 2012. There is an important Faroese-Icelandic anti—submarine frontier for the alliance, the NATO defense line stretching between Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain and Norway.
Ships of the first permanent naval group of NATO and submarines from Norway and the Netherlands will take part in the current maneuvers, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov suggested.
— There was news recently that Sweden has sent its boat for modernization. Therefore, perhaps she will want to test it in these exercises," he told Izvestia. — The British are unlikely to participate — they are currently having problems with their underwater forces. The French don't have many boats either, so there won't be any.
The Alliance is also currently developing the use of unmanned boats and drones as anti-submarine warfare equipment. Perhaps they will try to work out their application in conditions close to reality, the expert said. In his opinion, the biggest problem of NATO is that all the participants speak different languages.
— They constantly need to conduct exercises so that their military personnel can at least begin to understand each other. In particular, even the British and Americans have different versions of English," Dmitry Boltenkov noted. — In the event of a conflict with NATO, convoys with supplies and equipment will pass through this area from America. Of course, we will deploy underwater forces there to disrupt maritime communications. The alliance understands this, and that's why this area is so important to them.
How NATO is trying to track Russian submarines
Our submarines, leaving the bases of the Northern Fleet from the Kola Peninsula, are deployed in the North Atlantic, so the likely opponents have been creating so-called anti-submarine lines there since the Cold War.
"The essence of these anti—submarine lines is that SOSUS (SOund SUrveillance System) sonar tracking systems are located there," Captain 1st Rank Igor Kurdin, head of the St. Petersburg Club of Submariners, explained to Izvestia. — In order to track, first of all, our missile submarines that enter combat service areas in readiness for nuclear missile strikes. Now our missile submarines can fire directly from the piers or even from under the Arctic ice. But during the Cold War, we needed these deployment routes, because the range of the missiles did not allow firing from the Barents Sea from the berths.
According to the expert, NATO is conducting exercises in the area to practice effective search operations to track Russian boats.
— We are currently deploying so—called anti-submarine submarines in the Atlantic - Project 971 hunter boats and other modern submarines. This is necessary so that we can search for nuclear missile carriers from other countries in the Atlantic and set up tracking for them and then destroy them if they plan to launch their missiles at us," Igor Kurdin continued.
Despite the fact that Iceland (and the exercises will be held off its coast) does not have de facto armed forces, it is still a NATO country and occupies an important strategic position, military expert Vasily Dandykin said in an interview with Izvestia.
— The alliance's troops use its airfields, including American bombers. Iceland is located in the Atlantic Ocean and is an important island in terms of controlling maritime communications. This was proved by the events of the Second World War, when our northern convoys marched there," he recalled. — Most likely, the tasks will be carried out against submarines of the Russian Northern Fleet. This is often talked about in the alliance. And the British claim that they are in danger, as Russian submarines pass near them, surface and observe. This is the Swedish syndrome. They have also been searching for our submarine in their waters for a long time.
Who participated in the Atlantic exercises of the alliance in 2024
Last year, Sweden, which has modern submarines, took part in the Dynamic Mongoose exercises for the first time as a member of the alliance. They are rated by Western experts as one of the most advanced and technologically successful combat platforms, while very low-noise and with a small crew.
Submarines from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States took part in the exercises, as well as aircraft from Canada, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, multinational surface ships of the NATO Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) under the command of Rear Admiral of the Spanish Navy Joaquin Ruiz Escagedo aboard the flagship ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbon, as well as other ships from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom were spotted in the area of maneuvers.
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