Finland drills vessel seizure to guard Baltic undersea cables

Finnish security forces practised boarding and seizing a vessel in the Gulf of Finland, part of efforts to deter and disrupt possible attacks on undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

During the Marsec EU26 exercise, Finnish border guards and defence forces descended from helicopters onto the deck of the icebreaker Polaris, moved quickly to the captain's bridge and took control of the crew and the ship. The drill, led by the Finnish border guard, is the first exercise in the Baltic Sea to focus specifically on protecting critical underwater infrastructure.

"All of these activities that we are conducting serve to raise the threshold for any potential perpetrator to do any actions towards our cables," said Ilja Iljin, a commander at Finnish Border Guard Headquarters who led the exercise. He said rapid detection, a swift operational response and an efficient court process would make would-be perpetrators face justice, adding that this should raise the threshold for such actions.

Iljin said it was important to hold the exercise in the region because of the multiple incidents in which undersea cables and gas pipelines have been damaged. "Statistically looking it is possible that the next incident will happen sometime in the future," he said, noting that the threat is not limited to anchor dragging. A future incident could involve a diver placing an explosive charge on a cable, a mini-submarine or an underwater robot using a cable cutter, he added, calling for a broad look at the issue.

About a dozen Baltic cables have been damaged in the last three years. While cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic have heightened suspicions that the damage might have been deliberate.

The boarding of the Polaris concluded three days of exercises that began on Tuesday and also involved a Polish border guard patrol vessel.