Finnish warship joins Exercise Sandy Coast 23 in North Sea

The Coastal Fleet’s mine countermeasures vessel Vahterpää will attend Exercise Sandy Coast in the North Sea from August 18 to September, 1, said Finnish Defence Forces in a press release on Thursday.

Sandy Coast is an international, annual mine countermeasures exercise led by the Netherlands in which, in addition to the Belgian and Dutch navies, the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) as well as troops from other NATO countries will also take part.

The objective of the exercise is to get practice in maritime mine countermeasures tactics and procedures and to support interoperability between the troops.

In the Exercise Sandy Coast Vahterpää will be training along with the SNMCMG1.

“Finnish mine countermeasures vessels have been training several times with the same task group, and their interoperability has developed to a high level,” said the Chief of Staff of the Coastal Fleet, Commander Jan-Erik Aitos.

In 2020, a Finnish mine countermeasures vessel participated in Exercise Sandy Coast for the first time. Then as well, the Finnish vessel trained with the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1.

On the way to and from the exercise Vahterpää trains with the Swedish Navy.

The exercise is included in the Action Plans. Participating in the exercise has been approved by the Ministry of Defence by a reference document as part of the Defence Forces 2023 exercise activities.