HMS “Ocean” is currently the largest Royal Navy ship that is in operation – its displacement tonnage is 21700 tonnes. It is also going to be the heaviest ship involved in the Baltops 2015 exercise. Its involvement was addressed by the Russian media, indicating that the Baltops operation is going to be staged close to the largest Russian Navy base in the Baltic Sea region, located in Baltiysk.
The Russians additionally noted that the exercise constitutes a response to their “war” activity in the area. The truth is that the Baltops operation has been organized regularly since 1972 – the only novelty this year stems from the fact that Russia is not going to be involved in this year’s edition.
So far we have no official information regarding the ships that would enter the Gdynia harbour for the “harbour phase” of the exercise, planned between 4th and 7th June 2015. The official release indicates that 40 ships from 17 states are going to be involved. The Russians claim that at least 46 ships and many aircraft are going to be involved in the operation...including the B-52 strategic bombers