On September 19-22 Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One, SNMCMG1, led by a Lithuanian officer paid a port visit to Rostock, Germany. The unit is deployed in the Baltic Sea region so that maritime security is enhanced and NATO solidarity and commitment to collective defence are ensured.
During the port visit the SNMCMG1commander, Commander Giedrius Premeneckas, met with assistant to the mayor of the municipality of Rostock and representative of the leadership of the German Navy Rear Admiral Hans Christian Luther.
Since passing under the command of the commander of the Lithuanian Navy on August 6 the Group has already completed port visits to Riga, Tallinn, Turku (Finland), and Klaipėda. SNMCMG1 deployed to Exercise Northern Coasts 2014 held in the northern part of the Baltic Sea and the territorial waters of Finland that had involved over 3 thousand troops with over 50 aircraft and vessels who honed their interoperability in a multinational military unit for a case of a regional crisis.
SNMCMG1 is a multinationally formed maritime rapid response mine counter-measures unit providing NATO with a capability to ensure mine counter-measures in peacetime, war or armed conflict.
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One, SNMCMG1, ensures NATO is supported with standing maritime capabilities for exercises and actual operations. SNMCMG1 completes at-sea mine clearance operations, and attends multinational training events within NATO framework and with NATO partners in the waters of Northern Europe. It is also used for responding to crises, demonstrating the presence of the Alliance in the region and NATO solidarity, and for visiting seaports of NATO and partner countries.
SNMCMG1 vessels are assigned by naval member states of NATO, the Group is led by a representative of one of the member states on a rotating basis. For the second semester of this year SNMCMG1 is under the responsibility of Commander Giedrius Premenckas of the Lithuanian Navy performing this duty from aboard the current SNMCMG1 flagship, the Lithuanian Minelayer LNS JOTVINGIS (N42).
NATO has strengthened not only maritime but also land and air security by sending troops for combined training and augmenting NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission in order to demonstrate the solidarity of the Alliance.
Photo credit: MCPO Michailas Karpuzovas
