Lithuania called for the creation of a northern alternative to NATO
MOSCOW, February 28 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. Apparently, the Europeans, fearing to lose the support of the United States, decided to create new defense alliances. Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Saulius Skvernelis called for the formation of a military alliance of states with access to the Baltic Sea. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland may join the "northern NATO". How this threatens Russia is described in the RIA Novosti article.
The Alliance of Four
So far, the idea of a regional alternative to NATO in the Baltic is only being discussed. Skvernelis explained that this is a "plan B" in case the United States withdraws military contingents from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia under pressure from Moscow. This is very worrying for the local media, and in Helsinki they expressed concern that Trump would expel Finland and Sweden from the North Atlantic Alliance.
Siil-2018 exercises in Estonia
Image source: CC0 / SHAPE NATO / Exercise Siil
"Russia may demand that NATO return to the borders of 1997," explained Jussi Lassila, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations. — Trump is quite capable of agreeing to this. Then we will need an alternative collective security system based on the Baltic and Northern European countries."
Since January, NATO has been conducting Operation Baltic Sentry. The official task is to patrol the Baltic Sea to prevent sabotage on underwater communications. In fact, the joint naval group staged a hunt for merchant vessels under Russian jurisdiction, allegedly involved in the breakage of bottom communication cables, detaining and searching several pennants.
Soldiers of the armies of the USA and Lithuania during the joint exercises "Rapid Trident — 2015"
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Stringer
This was preceded by a series of horror stories in the Western media. On December twenty-sixth, Politico journalists reported that Russia may try to seize part of Eastern Estonia and is already jamming satellite navigation and launching reconnaissance UAVs. The goal is to provoke NATO into a major war. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal immediately announced that a "deterrence fleet" would be deployed in the country.
The horror story worked. The unofficial and main function of the Baltic Sentry is the military deterrence of Russia in this area. There are two potential theaters of military operations: the Kaliningrad Region and the adjacent water area, as well as the Gulf of Finland, which, in the event of war, is planned to be closed in its narrowest part, along the Helsinki—Tallinn line (60 kilometers).
The Mosquito Fleet
Only the Finns have relatively serious naval capabilities in the region. Their main striking force is eight Rauma and Hamina missile boats armed with Swedish RBS—15 anti-ship missiles with a maximum range of up to 300 kilometers in the latest modification. What is especially dangerous, there is also a flotilla of minelayers — six vessels of the types Pohjanmaa, Hemeenmaa and Pansio. Each takes on board up to 150 sea mines. In addition, there are 13 Kiiski minesweepers, which are also suitable as minelayers.
The Finnish Navy's Hamina-class missile boat
Image source: © Photo : Finnish Navy
The rest of the ships are doing worse. Estonia has three minesweepers with machine—gun weapons and four patrol boats handed over to the fleet by the police and coast Guard. The "dark horse" is Gabriel V coastal missile systems purchased from Israel in 2024. They plan to install them on mobile platforms like army pickups. The firing range (up to 400 kilometers) allows you to keep an eye on the entire Gulf of Finland.
The Lithuanian fleet consists of the Jotvingis control ship of the Norwegian Vidar project, three British Hunt—type minesweepers, four Danish patrol boats of the Flyvefisken project, three high-speed boats and several tugboats. The only thing that has a combat value is the "Danes." Each patrol boat carries eight Harpoon anti—ship missiles with a range of up to 150 kilometers. This is not the newest weapon, modern naval air defense can handle it without much difficulty. However, a coordinated salvo from several boats can be very effective.
Latvia also made a bet on the "mosquito fleet": six Dutch Tripartite-type minesweepers, six patrol boats of the local Skrunda project and several high-speed coast guard boats. These watercraft do not have missile weapons. However, in 2023, Riga signed a contract with the Norwegian concern Kongsberg for the supply of land-based NSM anti-ship missiles. This is a modern strike system capable of hitting moving naval targets at a distance of up to 250 kilometers.
Active rearmament
None of the above makes much impression, but the Baltic countries are actively flexing their military muscles and will eventually become a serious regional threat. For example, Lithuania, which does not even have tanks today, has committed to increasing defense spending to five to six percent of GDP by 2030. Vilnius wants to spend 12 billion euros a year on this, more than Mexico, Colombia, Iran, Indonesia, Sweden, and Norway.
German tank Leopard 2
Image source: © AP Photo / Martin Meissner
In December 2024, the Lithuanians ordered 44 Leopard-2 tanks from the Germans in the latest A8 modification. The Swedes will supply about 100 CV—90 infantry fighting vehicles, France - 18 CAESAR long-range howitzers. Germany has already armed Lithuania with its artillery — 21 self—propelled guns PZH 2000 in 2015-2020. And finally, the United States promised eight HIMARS MLRS systems, which are capable of hitting, among other things, ATACMS tactical missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers. The sky is protected by several batteries of Norwegian NASAMS air defense systems. There are no combat aircraft, but the country's airspace is guarded by NATO allies.
Neighboring Estonia is also being re-equipped with similar equipment. In addition, Tallinn has purchased Spike-SR/LR anti—tank missile systems in Israel with a range of up to five kilometers, operating on the principle of "shot and forget." To protect the sky, the Estonians purchased several batteries of the German IRIS-T SLM medium-range air defense system in 2023. In addition, eight HIMARS MLRS systems were ordered from the United States, which will allow firing at an operational and tactical depth.
Loading ATACMS missiles into the highly mobile HIMARS artillery missile system
Image source: © AP Photo / Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Dickson
Latvia does not have tanks, but there are about 170 British Scimitar combat reconnaissance vehicles, and 42 Austro-Spanish ASCCOD-2 infantry fighting vehicles were ordered at the end of January. And they purchased ten HIMARS MLRS installations from the United States.
Finland has up to 200 Leopard 2A4 and A6 tanks, 110 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, modern South Korean K9 howitzers, up to 40 MLRS MLRS, and hundreds of Soviet artillery pieces. And tactical aviation — more than 60 American F-18C/D fighter jets and 27 British Hawker Siddeley Hawk training aircraft capable of carrying out light attack aircraft missions.
Of course, the main military power of the four states capable of creating a military alliance on Russia's northwestern borders lies in the NATO allies who have deployed their military contingents there. But in the future, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians and Finns, armed to the teeth, will become quite a serious threat even without their elders. At least because they have missiles that can reach St. Petersburg.
