NOCO23: Early and successful completion

Exercise Northern Coasts 23 was successfully completed around 40 hours earlier than planned today.

"In the free-play phase of the exercise, all participating units were able to consolidate the training successes of the first week of the manoeuvre and significantly improve operational-tactical cooperation at unit level, despite some poor weather conditions. As Exercise Director, I can already say today that all participants have benefited greatly from NOCO 23 in terms of their own operational readiness and cooperation within the multinational group. I am very satisfied with the results," said Flotilla Admiral Stephan Haisch. The DEU MARFOR staff in Rostock was also able to successfully demonstrate its leadership capabilities. The German Navy has thus shown that it is willing and able to take on more leadership responsibility in the Baltic Sea region.

Interested observers

According to Haisch, the manoeuvre in the sea area off the coasts of Estonia and Latvia was also noticed and observed by the Russian navy: "Overall, the Russian ships and aircraft behaved as expected, there was no provocation or escalation. We demonstrated our operational readiness and we were vigilant. I think that the Russian navy was well aware of this."

Early end - good decision

In view of the positive outcome of the exercise and the continuing poor weather in the sea area, Flotilla Admiral Haisch decided to end the exercise 40 hours earlier than planned, not least to conserve personnel and equipment. The ships and aircraft involved in the exercise now face a wide variety of new tasks. However, the attention in the Baltic Sea will not diminish. For example, ships and boats of the German Navy and our partners will continue to fly the flag in the Baltic Sea as part of Operation BALTIC GUARD.