The international exercise Freezing Winds 22 led by the Finnish Navy will come to an end on Friday 2 December. The Finnish training troops will return to their home garrisons for post-exercise administration by noon on Friday.
Freezing Winds 22 is one of the biggest maritime exercises ever organised in Finland. Almost 5000 soldiers from 12 countries took part in the exercise.
In the course of the exercise, the international and domestic troops got their fair share of blizzards and slippery decks. The light and weather conditions in the Baltic Sea area have posed a challenge for the training troops. The exercise director, Commodore Jukka Anteroinen describes:
- In this exercise, in particular, the prevailing weather and light conditions, difficult as they can be, boost the value of our successful joint operation. This is exactly what we wanted to train. This year’s intensive training in international company has turned into an improved routine to organize international exercises.
In the exercise, a joint international maritime operation involving naval and coastal forces was conducted in the Gulf of Finland and Archipelago Sea areas. Adequate maritime defence interoperability plays an important role in securing the sea lines of communications for commercial shipping, for example.
- As an invited observer member of NATO, our objective remains to keep the most important Navy exercises open for the participation of our partners. This is how we contribute to the stability of the Baltic Sea region, Anteroinen remarks.
Freezing Winds 22 vessels to visit Turku and Helsinki
After the exercise, the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One, SNMCMG1 will conduct a harbour visit in Turku from 1 to 5 December. The Mine Countermeasures Group comprises the German service vessel FGS Mosel and mine countermeasures vessel FGS Sulzbach-Rosenborg. The vessels will berth at the Port of Turku. The visit will be hosted by the Coastal Fleet.
The American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Paul Ignatius and the German mine countermeasures vessel FGS Dillingen will conduct visits in Helsinki beginning from 2 December. The vessels will berth at Hernesaari. The visits will be hosted by the Naval Academy.
