British Commandos Stage Secret Island Assault in Estonia During Baltic Dawn Exercise

The United Kingdom’s Royal Marines rehearsed covert boarding missions in the eastern Baltic Sea and conducted a joint raid on Estonia’s Saaremaa Island during the Baltic Dawn exercise, according to the Royal Navy on November 7.

As part of a 150-personnel Special Operations Maritime Task Group (SOMTG), 42 and 47 Commando operated from the support ship RFA Lyme Bay, carried out small-boat boardings, and linked up with the British Army’s 3rd Ranger Regiment for the operation on Saaremaa.

The SOMTG training remit includes “re-taking vessels and offshore platforms” and conducting clandestine littoral raids to enable the landing of allied forces.

“Exercise Baltic Dawn reaffirmed what Commando Forces have always stood for—the ability to strike unpredictably from the sea, anywhere, at any time,” said SOMTG commander Major Adam Kidson.

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He added that operating from a Royal Fleet Auxiliary platform and conducting complex maritime interdiction operations expands the group’s flexibility and reach, which will undergo NATO evaluation in January 2026, ahead of joining the Allied Reaction Force in June.

The Royal Navy noted that Baltic Dawn is part of a wider series of multinational activities under the Joint Expeditionary Force—Tarassis—spanning Norway, Latvia, Finland, and the eastern Baltic, combining operations on land, at sea, and in the air.

The Baltic Dawn drills are framed within a wider NATO and Joint Expeditionary Force posture to deter and counter mounting Russian pressure in the region, with JEF leaders declaring a commitment “to constrain, contest, and counter Russia’s aggression and threats to regional security,” while allies step up Baltic Sea security cooperation and plan further exercises, according to official statements and the UK government.

Earlier, it was reported that the UK’s Royal Marines concluded ten days of Arctic-warfare drills off Norway’s coast, testing amphibious operations and landing logistics from the sea—part of the broader Tarassis series.

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