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BALTOPS / Kiel Week 2004 Photo Special

Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) is an annual US-sponsored maritime exercise in the Baltic Sea. With naval vessels and aircraft of several nations taking part, the exercise is intended to improve the interoperability of the participating navies by conducting peace support operations at sea. The operations involve exercises in gunnery, replenishment-at-sea, undersea warfare, radar tracking, mine countermeasures, seamanship, search and rescue, and maritime interdiction operations. Additionally, the nations conduct personnel exchanges amongst the ships so that officers and sailors could see how their contemporaries from other navies live and operate.

The exercise usually takes place in June and is concluded with a port visit to Kiel, Germany, where the ships participate in the Kiel Week celebrations.

The photos on the pages linked below were taken on June 17 - 21, 2004. They were all taken by me during the Kiel Week celebrations in Kiel, Germany, and show some of the ships present during the celebrations.

Aerial view of the Tirpitz Harbor. Assembled are some of the naval units that participated in BALTOPS 2004. The photo was taken by Carl Groll.

Click to enlarge.




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