Poland and Sweden have launched Gotland Sentry, their first-ever bilateral Short Notice Exercise (SNEX), to stress-test rapid deployment capabilities and safeguard NATO’s reinforcement corridors across the Baltic Sea. The drill, which began on September 22, is led by Poland’s Operational Command and Sweden’s Joint Forces Command and focuses on short-notice alerts, compressed planning cycles, and fast-paced execution to replicate the pressures of a real crisis.
The exercise demonstrates that Warsaw and Stockholm can rapidly deploy air, sea, and land components, integrate command-and-control structures, and conduct collective defense procedures under demanding conditions. This is the first such event since Sweden’s NATO accession, sending a strong signal of allied cohesion and readiness in the region.
Built around the SNEX concept, the drill forces participating units to react with little preparation time, organize quickly to defend key terrain such as Gotland and the Polish littoral, and synchronize targeting and communications across national networks. The exercise not only proves that units can deploy but that they can sustain operations, share situational data, and integrate sensors and shooters in a contested environment.
Beyond operational benefits, Gotland Sentry refines technical interoperability—testing data links, EW resilience, and blue-force tracking—while sending a psychological message that any gap in Baltic security can be filled at speed. Strategically, it reduces Moscow’s window of opportunity, complicates Kaliningrad-based threats, and reinforces the security of maritime corridors and seabed infrastructure.
In short, Gotland Sentry shows that the Polish-Swedish defense partnership has matured into a credible operational instrument and that NATO’s northern flank is moving from episodic cooperation to a posture of standing readiness.
