NATO Permanent Ship Team in Gdynia

On Friday, March 5, the ships of NATO's Permanent Marine Force Team – SNMG1 (Standing NATO Maritime Group One) entered the Gdynia port. The visit of the Allied Team is working.

The team of ships forms the Canadian rocket frigate HMCS Halifax, which is at the same time the team's flagship and the German supply ship FGS Spessart. The ships are commanded by the Canadian Commodore Bradley Peats.

The team will leave Gdynia port on Monday, March 8.

The mission of SNMG1 is to demonstrate the solidarity of allied members and to carry out one of the most important defence tasks – to ensure the security of strategic maritime transport routes. In a crisis situation, countries NATO cannot allow sea transport to paralyse because it is mainly the way to the endangered country that humanitarian aid, raw materials, fuel and combat support is being channelled.

NATO's Permanent Team of Marine Forces – SNMG1 is one of the most effective elements of the so-called response forces – does not need to build a separate logistics base, carries out strong and diverse weapons, can carry out embargo actions, shipping control, shielding units with humanitarian supplies, evacuate the endangered population. It can also be a base for special units or marine infantry performing tasks inland.

Most of the time the team spends at sea, among other things, playing ship interaction and participating in sea maneuvers. In a crisis situation, it can be directed almost from a march to perform tasks in virtually any area of the globe.

The NATO Permanent Ship Team was formed in January 1968 as the STANAVFORLANT (Standing Naval Force Atlantic – the Atlantic Marine Force Permanent Team). In 2003, its name was changed to Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG-1) and subordinated to the NATO Joint Armed Forces Command in the Atlantic. SNMG-1 is part of NATO Response Force.

SNMG-1 is one of the two permanent teams of the North Atlantic Alliance vessels, consisting of selected destroyers and frigates of Member States. The team's skeleton consists of units from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, to which ships from Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Poland regularly join. Multinational elite team it is maintained to the highest degree of combat preparedness and is intended to respond immediately to emergencies, peace operations and in the event of war.

Ships operate in the Atlantic and in all European waters and are the best trained international strike team of this kind in the world. In carrying out their tasks at sea, ships are able to monitor navigation, control suspicious units, conduct blockade operations and evacuate the endangered population, and may form a base for marine infantry and special units performing tasks inland.

The North Atlantic Alliance maintains four teams of ships in constant rotation service. Two of them are frigate teams, two of them are mine force teams.

Signature: Press Section 3. FO