Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Keeping Baltic Sea ports open is crucial for the smooth operation of the societies they serve.
In these episodes of Shielding the Baltic Sea, Naval and Maritime Security Expert Dr Sebastian Bruns says having navy bases located close to commercial ports sends out powerful messages. “Navy ships coming into a port signals deterrence,” he says. “It also signals a resolute defence, both to the population that sees the warships and the naval assets in the in the port, as well as to a potential enemy.”
Johan Dahlman, Security Manager with Ports of Stockholm, says it’s also important for ports to take a proactive approach to their own security.
“Ports of Stockholm has over the years both developed and expanded the use of technical equipment for the protection of our harbour facilities. For example, we have surveillance by a traffic control centre which is open 24/7, year-round, manned by our own personnel. We also have close cooperation with other Swedish ports around developing and applying best practice.”
Angelica Persson, Business Development Analyst at Saab, says an advanced combat management system can play a pivotal role in port protection, making sense of a diverse range of sensors and inputs. “A combat management system brings together computer processes and presents them to a decisionmaker so that they can do their job,” she says. “We have long worked to optimise the foundations needed for decisionmakers to be able to operate at this increased level of conflict.”
We would like to thank the Swedish Armed Forces, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Coast Guard for footage and support.
Keeping Baltic Sea ports open is crucial for the smooth operation of the societies they serve.
In these episodes of Shielding the Baltic Sea, Naval and Maritime Security Expert Dr Sebastian Bruns says having navy bases located close to commercial ports sends out powerful messages. “Navy ships coming into a port signals deterrence,” he says. “It also signals a resolute defence, both to the population that sees the warships and the naval assets in the in the port, as well as to a potential enemy.”
Johan Dahlman, Security Manager with Ports of Stockholm, says it’s also important for ports to take a proactive approach to their own security.
“Ports of Stockholm has over the years both developed and expanded the use of technical equipment for the protection of our harbour facilities. For example, we have surveillance by a traffic control centre which is open 24/7, year-round, manned by our own personnel. We also have close cooperation with other Swedish ports around developing and applying best practice.”
Angelica Persson, Business Development Analyst at Saab, says an advanced combat management system can play a pivotal role in port protection, making sense of a diverse range of sensors and inputs. “A combat management system brings together computer processes and presents them to a decisionmaker so that they can do their job,” she says. “We have long worked to optimise the foundations needed for decisionmakers to be able to operate at this increased level of conflict.”
We would like to thank the Swedish Armed Forces, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Coast Guard for footage and support.


![In the Air - Part 1 | Shielding the Baltic Sea
Advances in technology mean the time between an aerial threat appearing over the Baltic Sea and it arriving at its target has never been shorter.
In these episodes, Patrik Gardesten, Deputy Chief of the Swedish Navy, explains, “The Baltic Sea is a small sea. Theres a threat here and it comes from attack aircraft, from guided missiles and other missiles. In order to meet this we need good sensors and good weapon systems.”
Angelica Persson, Business Development Analyst at Saab, fully agrees. “[Aerial threats] can reach us from very long distances and they also come at extremely high speeds – supersonic speeds – which makes them extremely difficult to take action against,” she says. “In order to manage this type of threat, for example, tactical ballistic missiles, we need to ensure that the right system has the right information at the right point in time in order to be able to operate against them in an optimised way.”
Johan Hägg, Naval Product Manager at Saab, explains Saab’s air defence solutions rely on many integrated parts to provide coverage. “We have both active sensors, radar and others, and passive sensors which can detect such threats,” he says. “We bring this together in a management system that can investigate what kind of threat it is and then we have a number of different working parts which we can choose to use. It becomes a complete function chain.”
We would like to thank the Swedish Armed Forces, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Coast Guard for footage and support. In the Air - Part 1 | Shielding the Baltic Sea](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vXKBpm5IKHg/mqdefault.jpg)







