Since the illegal and unprovoked attack by Russia on Ukraine in Feb 2022, the JEF has exponentially increased activities in the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic regions, across all domains. The activities have ranged from tactical and unit level observation teams, through to multinational exercises, operations and strategic ministerial level table-top exercises.
All ten nations have agreed to working closely together to enhance cooperation on security of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), intelligence-sharing, and refinement of the JEF Response Options (JROs) – the protocols by which JEF can respond in times of crisis. The work to develop JROs has built consensus in the JEF planning processes and resulted in stand-alone packages of potential activities which can support Participant Nations and NATO for a swift, credible and capable response to a raft of threats and challenges in the region.
This led to the first JRO being activated by the JEF Defence Ministers in December 2023, which saw a coordinated series of activities with contributions from all ten JEF participant nations. These activities demonstrated JEF’s ability to deploy maritime and air assets to contribute to the protection of critical undersea infrastructure in Northern European seas. The activation was coordinated with NATO’s enhanced Vigilance Activity in the Baltic Sea Region following recent damage to the Balticconnector pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.
The JEF Operational Headquarters, in London, planned and coordinated the activities which involved 29 vessels and 11 aircraft patrolling one million square miles of sea in four operational areas – UK/Dutch waters and the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat, Central and Eastern Baltic and the Norwegian Sea. The ships and aircraft performed a range of complex tasks in the challenging winter conditions of the Northern European seas, including patrolling key areas and conducting undersea surveillance. Iceland deployed StratCom advisors to support the JRO messaging. This extensive and successful delivery of JRO activities confirmed JEF’s ability to coordinate regional effects in line with NATO and national objectives.
The value added by the JEF is a significant contribution to both security and deterrence, giving JEF Participant Nation governments, and NATO, more options in times of crisis.