New NATO patrols watch over infrastructure under the Baltic Sea, AP explains

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(24 Jan 2025)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Air, over Baltic Sea - 23 January 2025
+PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 2-7++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) John Leicester, Associated Press:
"Fourteen men and women, French sailors were on board this French Navy aircraft an Atlantic 2 and it's flying over the Baltic Sea. It's here as part of a new NATO mission called Baltic Century and its job is to protect the critical infrastructure that's underneath this area of sea. That is electricity cables, gas pipelines, data cables -- all the stuff that essentially keeps the economies here ticking. And, of course, at the end of the Baltic Sea, you have Russia involved in a war with Ukraine, Ukraine being supported by the other nations of Europe. It's a very sensitive place. And the damage that has been done recently to some of the underwater infrastructure here in the Baltic sea is making people nervous. NATO's stepped up patrols, stepped up with more aircraft flying. There's more ships on the sea to try and prevent it from happening again. And this aircraft has been turning around and around, basically hoovering up information, checking out all the ships on the sea. It's loaded with high tech gear. You can see down through the clouds to see whether or not there's any attempts of sabotage."

ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Over Germany and the Baltic Sea - 23 January 2025
2. Various of crew members operating consoles, showing data and images from the plane’s onboard sensors and monitoring equipment
3. Various of ships in the Baltic Sea (on screens) that the patrol aircraft spots and tracks using its cameras
4. Crew member
5. Close of hand steering aircraft
6. Crewmen operating monitors
7. Various of ships as seen on monitors
STORYLINE:
NATO began a new mission over the Baltic Sea which the transatlantic alliance says is to protect undersea cables and pipelines.

The operation follows a string of incidents that have heightened fears of Russian sabotage and spying in the strategic region.

A French Navy maritime surveillance aircraft cruised for hours Thursday above the Baltic Sea for NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ mission.

It took off early in the morning from its home base in Lorient, western France, and returned 1 5 hours later. The mission also included a refueling stop in Hamburg, Germany.

They were looking for any suspicious activity around the dense networks of power and communication cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic.

"The damage that has been done recently to some of the underwater infrastructure here in the Baltic Sea is making people nervous," explains AP's John Leicester.

"NATO's stepped up patrols, stepped up with more aircraft flying. There's more ships on the sea to try and prevent it from happening again," he added.

In announcing the mission last week, NATO said Baltic Sentry would include frigates, maritime patrol aircraft and a fleet of naval drones to provide “enhanced surveillance and deterrence.”

NATO noted that more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, and 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) of cables guarantee an estimated $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day.

The French crew said they picked up indications of jamming of GPS signals in the vicinity of Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and they also spotted a few ships that were listed as being among those that they’d been ordered to watch out for.

But on this flight, they said they’d not spotted any suspicious or illegal activity to report.

Other French flights, however, will be back over the Baltic soon, keeping guard.



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