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Baltic blitz for Navy’s small patrol craft on eight-week mission
21 May 2025
Six Royal Navy Coastal Forces Squadron (CFS) Inshore Patrol Craft (P2000) have arrived in the Baltic to play their part in NATO’s principal workout in the region.
His Majesty’s Ships Archer, Biter, Dasher, Example, Pursuer and Smiter will spend the next six or so weeks taking part in a combination of joint training with our NATO Allies, trialling and operating underwater and aerial drones, and flying the flag for the UK.
BALTOPs – literally BALTic OPerations – has been running more than half a century and focuses on security of the region and its waters, ensuring the NATO Allies and partner nations who operate there can work side-by-side seamlessly.
The 2025 iteration of the international workout is spread across an area from Jutland and the Great Belt in the West to the Bay of Gdańsk – about 40,000 square miles or roughly the size of the Netherlands.
Two of the P2000 patrol vessels are lined up to work with the RN Mine Threat and Exploitation Group, who’ll be using the craft as launchpads for the latest robot tech monitoring the underwater battlespace through unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
The remaining four vessels will work with US Navy surface and aerial drones (unmanned air vehicles or UAVs), particularly harassing other participants to test their abilities to fend off waves of swarm attacks.
Although the exercise takes place in the Baltic, it’s directed from NATO’s headquarters in Lisbon, where Royal Navy Coastal Forces Squadron staff will help direct BALTOPs, while additional UK personnel will work from Ustka on Poland’s Pomeranian coast where some of the most dynamic phases of the training will take place.
Having sailed through the Kiel Canal, which spares the vessels a 300-mile voyage around the Jutland peninsula, the patrol boats have begun their Baltic adventure with several weeks of training, including making use of the German Navy’s damage control school at Neustadt and reaffirming ties with the German Navy’s Officer School at Mürwik – the country’s counterpart to Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
The relatively limited range and facilities on board the patrol craft means they typically put into port every night – and their size allows them to visit smaller harbours unable to accommodate larger warships.
It means the time in the Baltic for the 30 or so personnel deployed with the detachment can cram a wide variety of experiences, cultures and sights into a few weeks.
“There’s also a huge range of experience among the ship’s companies with it being some personnel’s first days at sea and first operational deployment,” said Lieutenant Sophie Tulloch, Commanding Officer of HMS Biter.
“Not only do they get hands-on exposure to a live multi-national exercise, but the P2000 are also small enough to explore and make the most of ports in countries all over the region.
“The vessels themselves are remarkably versatile – as well as our regular role playing opposing forces, there’s a huge focus on unmanned underwater and surface vehicle presence - for which P2000 are an ideal platform.”
Once Baltops concludes the patrol boats are due to represent the Royal Navy at Kiel Week, one of the world’s great maritime festivals.
Kiel Canal transit imagery courtesy of AB James Clarke, HMS Example.