Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) is one of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

's standing naval maritime immediate reaction forces. SNMG1 consists of four to six

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed ...

s and

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...

s. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability.

History

In late November 1966, U.S. Rear Admiral

Richard G. Colbert Richard Gary Colbert (February 12, 1915 – December 2, 1973) was a List of United States Navy four-star admirals, four-star admiral in the United States Navy who served as President of the Naval War College from 1968 to 1971, and as commander in ...

prepared a concept paper proposing a permanent

Allied Command Atlantic An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

naval contingency force based on Operation Matchmaker, an annual six-month

exercise Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic ...

involving ships from NATO navies. The proposed contingency force was approved by NATO in December 1967 and activated in January 1968 as

Standing Naval Force Atlantic Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) is one of NATO's standing naval maritime immediate reaction forces. SNMG1 consists of four to six destroyers and frigates. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability. Hi ...

(STANAVFORLANT). During the 1990s, STANAVFORLANT was heavily involved in

Operation Maritime Monitor Operation Maritime Monitor was a NATO operation during the Bosnian War to monitor compliance with sanctions imposed against the former Yugoslavia under United Nations Security Council resolutions 713 (1991) and 757 (1992). The operation began on ...

(July 1992 to November 1992),

Operation Maritime Guard Operation Maritime Guard was a NATO blockade, in the international waters of the Adriatic Sea, of the former Yugoslavia. Scope The operation began on November 22, 1992. It followed NATO Operation Maritime Monitor, and was in support of UN S ...

(November 1992 to June 1993) and

Operation Sharp Guard Operation Sharp Guard was a multi-year joint naval blockade in the Adriatic Sea by NATO and the Western European Union on shipments to the former Yugoslavia. Warships and maritime patrol aircraft from 14 countries were involved in searching for ...

(June 1993 to October 1996), the maritime embargo operations in the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to th ...

established to ensure compliance by

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

with

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

(UN) resolutions

713 __NOTOC__ Year 713 ( DCCXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 713 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

715 __NOTOC__ Year 715 ( DCCXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 715 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

787 787 may refer to: * Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a jet airliner * AD 787, a year * 787 BC, a year * Mazda 787/787B, a Japanese rotary-engine race car which won the 1991 Le Mans Race * Porsche 787, a race car from the 1960s * 787 series, a train model o ...

, 820 and 943. Between November 1992 and June 1996 some 74,000 ships were challenged, almost 6,000 were inspected at sea and more than 1,400 were diverted and inspected in port. The force was under the operational control of SACLANT until SACLANT was decommissioned in 2003 and it was folded into NATO's Allied Command Operations (ACO) at that time. The force was re-designated Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in January 2005. In September 2007, SNMG1 was in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

bound for

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

to complete a

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the ...

of Africa when the Jabal al-Tair volcano erupted. SNMG1 ships assisted the

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

i coast guard in the recovery of their military personnel stationed on the island. From March 2009 to June 2009 SNMG1 was deployed by NATO off the Somali coast to conduct

Operation Allied Protector Operation Allied Protector was an anti-piracy military operation undertaken by NATO forces from March – August 2009 in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Guardafui Channel to protect maritime routes from pirates within the Internatio ...

, to deter, defend and protect

World Food Programme The World Food Programme; it, Programma alimentare mondiale; es, Programa Mundial de Alimentos; ar, برنامج الأغذية العالمي, translit=barnamaj al'aghdhiat alealami; russian: Всемирная продовольствен� ...

(WFP) vessels against the threat of piracy and armed robbery, thereby allowing WFP to fulfill its mission of providing humanitarian aid.''Counter-piracy Operations.''
North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Retrieved: 27 December 2013. Since August 2009, SNMG1 has been providing ships for NATO's

Operation Ocean Shield Operation Ocean Shield was NATO's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA), an anti-piracy initiative in the Indian Ocean, Guardafui Channel, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It follows the earlier Operation Al ...

anti-

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

mission in the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Chann ...

. On 23–25 March 2012 the group conducted a passing exercise with

Carrier Strike Group Twelve Carrier Strike Group Twelve (CSG-12 or CARSTRKGRU 12) is one of four U.S. Navy carrier strike groups currently assigned to the United States Fleet Forces Command. Carrier strike groups gain and maintain sea control as well as project naval airpow ...

, led by , while carrying out Operation Active Endeavor missions in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. The group's commander,

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

Ben Bekkering,

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

visited ''Enterprise''. At the time the group consisted of the Royal Netherlands Navy frigate , the Spanish Navy frigate , the German Navy frigate , and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate . Portuguese and Norwegian warships moored at South Quay in London

Portuguese and Norwegian warships moored at South Quay in London

In November 2018, HNoMS Helge Ingstad was operating with SNMG1 when she was involved in a collision with a Maltese flagged tanker and had to be deliberately run aground to prevent her sinking. The remainder of SNMG1 stood by to provide assistance. During 2021, SNMG1 was active in the region of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

for 12 days.

Current ships

As of 5 November 2022, SNMG1 consists of: Ships in bold are currently part of the naval force

Previous task groups

In 2021, SNMG1 consisted of: During this deployment, SNMG1 took part in numerous exercises including: * TG 21-1 from February 8 to February 19 in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

* Dynamic Guard 21 from February 24 to February 26 in

* Joint Warrior 21-1 from May 7 to May 14 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

* Steadfast Defender 21 from May 21 to June 2 in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

* BALTOPS50 from June 6 to June 18 in the

* Dynamic Mongoose 21 from July 1 to July 9 in

* Joint Warrior 21-2 from 18 September to 30 September 2021 in the

* FLOTEX 21 from November 22 to December 3 in

Exercise REP(MUS) REP(MUS) (''Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Uncrewed Systems'') is an annual military exercise organized and hosted by the Portuguese Navy and NATO with the participation of forces from foreign military forces, universities ...

from 12 September to 22 September in

Organization

SNMG1 is a component of the

NATO Response Force The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly. Until February 2022, when NATO activated it in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine,JAMES KITFIEL(1 ...

(NRF).

References

External links

Official SNMG1 Homepage

Allied Maritime Command Headquarters Homepage

Africa Deployment Brochure

Photos from SNMG1 2009
{{NATO Military units and formations of NATO Military units and formations established in 1968