More than 100 Polish paratroopers from the 6th Airborne Brigade landed on Gotland on 24 September, in what Poland’s Operational Command described as the largest airborne deployment in the history of Polish-Swedish cooperation.
A Polish coastal missile unit equipped with Naval Strike Missile launchers also arrived on the island the same day.
The Swedish Armed Forces said Operation Gotland Sentry involved transferring missile systems from both Poland and mainland Sweden to Gotland to “rapidly establish a comprehensive defence of the island—both at sea and on land.”
Officials added that the exercise was designed to test concrete defence plans and real readiness in the Baltic region.
Swedish media have noted that the military is framing the operation less as a traditional exercise and more as a clear signal intended to deter Russia.
Gotland at the heart of NATO defence
Gotland, lying just 300 km (186 miles) from Russia’s Baltic Fleet in Królewiec, has long been seen as a linchpin of regional security.
“It’s basically like a huge aircraft carrier in the middle of the Baltic,” Swedish Navy officer Oscar Hannus told Reuters, noting that both Polish and Swedish missile forces were positioned to repel seaborne threats.
Swedish Vice Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum said bluntly that “Russia is the threat,” pointing to drone incursions over Poland and Romania and Russian fighter flights near Estonia.
“They conduct destabilising operations to test us and try to influence us,” she told Swedish media, quoted by Poland’s state news agency PAP.
Her Polish counterpart, Vice Admiral Krzysztof Jaworski, highlighted the island’s importance: “When you put a missile unit on Gotland, you can secure almost the whole Baltic,” he told Reuters.
Sweden, which joined NATO in March 2024, has steadily reinforced Gotland since reactivating its regiment in 2018. Both governments say this unprecedented exercise sends a “clear signal of unity, determination, and readiness” to defend the Baltic region.
(mp)
Source: PAP/Reuters/X/@DowOperSZ/@Opledning