NATO Exercises

Russian Sailors Prepare to Join Canadians and NATO

By Commander Greg Green

Canadian and other NATO personnel have began teaching Russian sailors some of the tools of the NATO trade.

The team embarked in Russian Federation Ship (RFS) Moskva to help Russian sailors learn the NATO procedures to facilitate a smooth transition to NATO’s Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR later in the year.

On Feb. 5, RFS Moskva sailed from its homeport of Sevastopol, Ukraine, with RFS Azov and RFS Iman for a month-long deployment to the Mediterranean Sea.

It was an incredible opportunity. We often hear of the decline of this powerful navy and tend to marginalize them. Witnessing the confidence and efficiency of the ships departure and emergency drills, I noticed similarities between Russian and Western Navy procedures. This is exactly the kind of capability that will help integrate them into NATO’s continuing counter-terrorism operations in the Mediterranean area.

Russia will be the first non-NATO country to fully integrate into Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR, to be followed shortly by Ukraine.  Other nations, such as Algeria, Georgia, Israel and Morocco have formally expressed interest as well. 

While onboard Moskva, the NATO team, led by Dutch Naval Captain Sjoerd Both, gave presentations on the Concept of Operations, Rules of Engagement, Operations Plans, Communications, Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO), and Boarding Operations. In the next phase, the Russians will participate in a series of exercises and drills with ships from the Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG 2) to practice some of the theory they were taught and to test secure communications between Russian and NATO ships. 

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