{"id":189660,"date":"2019-06-10T07:10:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T07:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189660"},"modified":"2019-06-13T05:29:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T05:29:45","slug":"u-s-2nd-fleet-kicks-off-baltops-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=189660","title":{"rendered":"U.S. 2nd Fleet Kicks Off BALTOPS 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Werner \u2013 USNI News June 7, 2019<\/h1>\n
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USS Mount Whitney an amphibious command ship will serve as the command base for the naval exercise. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A massive U.S.-led NATO and European partner exercise is kicking-off near Russia in the Baltic Sea and led by the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. 2nd Fleet.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s BALTOPS involves ships, aircraft and 8,500 personnel from 18 NATO and European partner nations, U.S. 2nd Fleet commander Vice Adm. Lewis told reporters on Friday. This is the first exercise conducted under the leadership of reestablished 2nd Fleet, which was declared operational last week<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo one nation can face today\u2019s challenges alone. Our partner and NATO alliances must continue to strengthen our deterrence and defense efforts and adapt through improving readiness and responsiveness,\u201d Lewis said during a Friday morning teleconference with reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The BALTOPS 2019 exercise will also practice amphibious operations in the Baltic Sea, including a scheduled landing in Klaipeda, Lithuania next week. About 90 miles down the coast, Russia maintains a large Soviet-era naval base in Kaliningrad, a Russian controlled enclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a really good opportunity to operate with the U.S. amphibious forces in the NATO amphibious leaders symposium construct and we\u2019re putting to test some command and control arrangements which we really haven\u2019t had the opportunity to execute thus far,\u201d said Rear Adm. Andy Burns, the commander of the United Kingdom Maritime Forces, and acting as Lewis\u2019 deputy for the exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3 Russian warships, including a Stoikiy corvette (pictured) will monitor NATO\u2019s naval drill. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

So far, Lewis and Burns said they hadn\u2019t noticed any unsafe or otherwise out of the ordinary behavior from the Baltic Sea Russian fleet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, USNI News reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a> a Russian Udaloy-class destroyer came within 100 feet of the U.S. cruiser USS Chancellorsville<\/em> (CG-82) in the Philippine Sea in an incident, the U.S. Navy called \u201cUnsafe and unprofessional.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that Russia is a Baltic Sea state and therefore we would expect some interaction because they will be exercising their freedom to operate on the high seas alongside us, and as Adm. Lewis has pointed out, we\u2019re prepared for that, but we\u2019d expect them to act in a professional manner and follow the law of the seak\u201d Burns said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewis and Burns do recognize there\u2019s a possibility for Russian interference and said BALTOPS plans for such theoretical interactions. For instance, while the U.S. did not send an aircraft carrier to the exercise, and doesn\u2019t plan to in the future, Lewis said Spain contributed an amphibious assault ship carrying Harrier jets and similar in design to the U.S. Navy\u2019s Wasp-class. This ship can provide air cover to the exercise, Lewis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see that as a provocation, but I do consider it to be a contribution to deterrence,\u201d Lewis said of the Spanish ship. \u201cWe are very aware of the difference between deterrence and provocation, and we\u2019re not interested in provoking anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

50 surface ships, 36 aircraft, two submarines and 8,600 servicemen and women will participate in one of NATOs biggest naval drills off Russia\u2019s Baltic coast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189663,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189660\/revisions\/189663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}