The German Navy on the move

It's serious! The Russian war may be being waged in Ukraine - bad enough - but the foothills of this storm are sweeping across Europe: propagandistically in the media, subversively in the networks, activistically with drones over barracks and critical infrastructure, invisibly in cyberspace, felt in the Mediterranean and sensed in the Baltic Sea. Russia is not only waging war in Ukraine - Russia is waging war at all levels and wherever there are weak points.

Anyone who listened carefully to the words of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Navy's Historical Tactical Conference could sense concern - and determination at the same time. Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack is not the first naval inspector to be confronted with threats from the east. A Vice Admiral Zenker, the second inspector after the founding of the German Navy, had the Cuban Missile Crisis on his desk in 1962. It lasted 13 days. Vice-Admiral Hans-Joachim Mann was sitting tensely in the situation room in 1989 when the Wall fell - without violence. That was one night. He also had to send naval units to the Gulf War. That lasted a few months.

But Jan Christian Kaack is the first inspector of the German Navy to bear responsibility during a war in Europe. A war that the aggressor Russia is brazenly taking to the Baltic Sea. Kaack has now been Inspector of the Navy for four years - and the war in Ukraine will soon be entering its fifth year. Kaack is fighting a battle - and he never tires. He remains level-headed and yet determined, because fortunately no shots have yet been fired in the Baltic Sea. Only anchors - and that is under control.

The Russian provocations in Baltic airspace are something else. If NATO's navies and air forces weren't so well trained and strong-willed, there might already have been fatalities. There have already been a few close calls - and the Russian air force would have missed an aircraft during the in-flight. What you hardly see and hear about: NATO is successful in containing Russian aggression in the Baltic Sea.

Kaack has the minister's ear, but not all the hearts of the navy - and "um zu". Not everyone has yet fully understood what is meant, he says. And anyone who has not yet listened properly in town and country can read his intention here. Four key points:

Shape the growth!

Focussing our navy on its core mission!

Invest in innovative skills!

Put the fleet to sea!

Find out more here: The navy on the move

Text: Schlüter/Stephenson