Finland drills in the Baltic Sea to intercept ships suspected of threatening undersea infrastructure

Finland's coast guard, police and armed forces conducted a joint exercise in the Gulf of Finland on Thursday, preparing for possible sabotage of undersea infrastructure — an occurrence that has become increasingly frequent in the Baltic Sea. During the drill, masked personnel rappelled from a helicopter onto a ship's deck, took control of the crew, and searched the vessel compartment by compartment.

Goal: faster response

The exercise focused on how quickly authorities could seize control of a vessel suspected of involvement in damaging electricity or telecommunications cables and other critical infrastructure. Finnish Coast Guard commander Ilja Iljin said that, given the incidents of recent years, this level of readiness has become what he called the new normal for the region.

Suspicion can be raised, for example, by a ship that suddenly changes speed or course while crossing the location of an undersea cable. Finnish officials note that response times have improved considerably in recent years — while ships involved in the earliest incidents managed to get away unchecked, more recent suspicious vessels have been intercepted within a few hours.

Preparing for more serious scenarios

Although most undersea infrastructure damage to date has been linked to ships dragging their anchors, Finland is also preparing for far more serious scenarios, including deliberate sabotage carried out using divers, mini-submarines or underwater robots equipped with explosives.

The Finnish government also intends to expand the border guard's powers to stop and inspect ships that may be sailing without a clear national affiliation or using a false flag. Expanded powers are also planned for cases involving suspicious unmanned underwater vehicles.