{"id":72087,"date":"2025-09-16T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/09\/16\/amphibious-capabilities-extend-natos-range-in-the-high-north\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:55:43","slug":"amphibious-capabilities-extend-natos-range-in-the-high-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/opinion\/2025\/09\/16\/amphibious-capabilities-extend-natos-range-in-the-high-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Amphibious capabilities extend NATO\u2019s range in the High North"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After three ruinous years of war in Ukraine, NATO has new reasons to worry about further Russian incursion into Europe. Last week, in Poland, marked the first time that Russian drones have been downed<\/a> over the territory of a NATO member state. Earlier this summer, Estonian naval forces intercepted<\/a> an unflagged tanker in its exclusive economic zone, operating under Russia\u2019s shadow fleet. Recent Latvian intelligence reports suggest<\/a> that, in response to Sweden and Finland\u2019s accession to full NATO membership, Russian Armed Forces reorganized its military districts, bordering Latvia, into the newly formed Leningrad and Moscow military districts. These provocations by air, sea and land indicate Russia\u2019s willingness to test NATO member states\u2019 responsiveness and their defenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of the evolving and increasingly aggressive cross-domain threat posed by Russia, NATO should look to one of its most often overlooked and most versatile capabilities: its amphibious vessels. With the addition of Sweden and Finland, nine NATO member states operate<\/a> amphibious ships, all at high levels of readiness, regularly participating in exercises, trainings and operations in support of national and multilateral objectives. A 2018 RAND Corporation study assessed<\/a> NATO\u2019s amphibious capacity as \u201cconsiderable,\u201d but \u201cunderrecognized\u201d and in need of improved C2 constructs to bolster interoperability among amphibious task groups (ATG). Since then, particularly in light of the integration of Swedish and Finnish capabilities, NATO\u2019s amphibious capacity has grown and is up to the challenge of providing the requisite presence needed to deter an emboldened Russia and project power at sea in the Nordic-Baltic region.<\/p>\n\n\n\t