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NATO, Sweden hold submarine-hunting drills in Baltic Sea

The week-long drills involved about 1,200 troops from ten nations, as well as corvettes, frigates, support ships, helicopters and aircraft from several countries

STOCKHOLM, November 14. /TASS/. NATO and the Swedish Navy have held a major submarine-hunting exercise dubbed Dynamic Merlin 24, the Swedish Armed Forces said in a statement.

The week-long drills involved about 1,200 troops from ten nations, as well as corvettes, frigates, support ships, helicopters and aircraft from several countries, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

"There are several features that distinguish the Baltic Sea from all others when it comes to underwater search activities. The sea is shallow and the sea bottom is uneven in some places, while the varying salinity of seawater limits sonar’s ability to detect submarines to only very close range," Marko Petkovic, head of the Swedish Navy’s operations department, said.

The drills largely involved Swedish Navy ships and Standing NATO Maritime Group 1. US sub-hunting planes used the F17 air base near Ronneby in southern Sweden to carry out flights.

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