The Baltic Sea region is back in shifted the geopolitical focus. The United States-Guided naval exercise BALTOPS 2024, the from 7 to 20 June, once again underlined this importance. More than 50 ships from 20 nations with more than 9,000 soldiers took part. It was one of the biggest maneuvers in of the Baltic Sea for years.
Among them were Magdeburg and Braunschweig. The German corvettes from the Type 130 are specially designed for use in coastal waters – and there they perform a wide range of tasks. All her skills were at BALTOPS 2024.
“The The Baltic Sea is an optimal area of operation for our relatively small and agile ships,” explains frigate captain Max Berger, commander of the Magdeburg. “And it’s a familiar lake area, our backyard, so to speak. Here, together with our partners, we can bring our strengths to bear in the best possible way.”
Berger has long served on the corvettes of the Navy respectively in their military unit, the 1st Corvette Squadron in Rostock-Warnemünde. Since last year, the 38-year-old has been chief of the Magdeburg and commands her crew of over 60 women and men.
What the Baltic Sea a special area of operations
Their backyard, the Baltic Sea, is a so-called coastal or marginal sea. It is only connected to the North Sea the Belts around Denmark and the Kiel Canal in Schleswig-Holstein. “The For me, the main differences between the Baltic and North Sea are two things,” says boatswain Alexander K., second navigation master of the (SIC) Magdeburg.” The Baltic Sea is quieter than the North Sea, but there is a danger of ice here in winter.”
But even the The relative calm of the Baltic Sea can be deceiving from time to time. After the narrow entrances and behind the island of Bornholm southeast of Sweden, the sea opens up to its full width of over 200 kilometers – which means that just in in the middle of the Baltic Sea can build up a swell of several meters in height under appropriate circumstances. But there are also many narrow and shallow places in the rest of the Baltic Sea area – such as around Bornholm itself, around the centrally located island of Gotland or in Irben Strait, the entrance to the Bay of Riga with the second largest port of Baltic.