About 48 US Marines are being sent to the Baltic Sea to support NATO’s Baltic Sentry mission, which monitors undersea cables and pipelines. They will work alongside Finland’s Coastal Brigade.
The Marines are from the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group. The rotation will use small uncrewed aerial systems and coastal sensors to send data to NATO’s shared operational picture. The Marine Corps described its role as “supportive” and “enabling.”
Baltic Sentry is led by European allies under Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum and Allied Maritime Command. Maj. Gen. Daniel Shipley said working with Finnish allies would build a team to deter hybrid threats. Finnish Navy operations chief Capt. (N) Johan Tillander said the Marines’ experience and systems suited the mission.
The deployment follows an earlier rotation: roughly 40 Marines from the same battalion went to Finland in February 2025 with RQ-20 Puma drones. Baltic Sentry began in January 2025 after incidents involving undersea infrastructure raised concern in the region. Two fiber-optic cables were severed on November 17 and 18, 2024, and the Estlink 2 power cable and four telecom lines were damaged on Christmas Day, according to a Baird Maritime timeline.
The source reports the new team is joining an existing rotation. It presents the deployment as a supporting role; it does not establish who was responsible for the cable damage.
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