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Damaged ORP Gniezno returns from BALTOPS 19 exercise
Author:Mariusz Dasiewicz
Damaged during BALTOPS exercises 19 Polish ship ORP Gniezno returns to the country according to the schedule – said the spokesman for the 8th Coast Defence Fleet, Lieutenant Grzegorz Lewandowski, quoted by the Polish Press Agency on Monday. He should be in Poland on Monday.
According to Grzegorz Lewandowski, "the ship practiced landing operations, during one of the entrances to the beach it struck an underwater object, damaging the hull in the bottom part".
The Ombudsman pointed out that the risk of such situations involves conducting landing operations and that the structure of the unit is adapted to such events.
The damaged ship is ORP Gniezno – a Lublin-type landing and mine ship built in Poland, launched in 1988.
BALTOPS is an annual international sea exercise organized in the Baltic Sea. This year's 47th edition is attended by about 50 ships of different classes and types, 36 helicopters and aircraft, 8600 sailors and infantry soldiers. The maneuvers for the first time in history led a reactivated US Fleet less than a year ago.
The maneuvers take place in the Central Baltic region and, among others, in the maritime fields of the Baltic States and Sweden.
The exercise began on 7 June in Kilonia, where a port phase of the exercise called the "Pre-Sail Conference" was carried out, which included briefings and crew meetings preceding sea maneuvers. These meetings set out details of the exercises, and the commanders of the ships were also given the first, training introductions and tasks.
The primary forces involved in this year's edition of the BALTOPS exercise came out of ports and began practical maneuvers at sea, where for the next two weeks crews practice conducting international sea operations.
Three units from Poland were sent to participate in BALTOPS: the trawler of the ORP "Gardno" from the 12th Trags Division and the ORP "Wdzydze" from the 13th Trags Division and the transport-miner ship of the ORP "Gniezno" from the 2nd Transport-Miner Ship Squadron, on which the soldiers and equipment from the 8th Bomber Battalion from Dziwnów, as well as the Brzeg Rescue Group and the 43rd Saper Battalion from the 3rd Fleet Ships were boarded.
ALTOPS exercises have been organized in the Baltic Sea since 1972. Initially, it was an exercise involving the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance. Since 1993, new states from the former eastern bloc, including Poland, were invited to participate in the maneuvers. Since then, the BALTOPS exercise has been organised under the Peace Partnership Programme.
It is now an international exercise, based primarily on joint maritime activities, with particular emphasis on the exploration and combating of submarines, mine warfare, air defence and sea landing operations.
Almost 50 ships from several countries participate in the BTOPS 19 exercise. These are ships from Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, the United States, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
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