Were the U.S. Navy deep divers at the BALTOPS-22 exercise? Part II

A revised section 3 of my first Substack article. Part II

After the flights from the BALTOPS airbase Ronneby to U.S. Naval Station Rota and from Ronneby to Sigonella and further to Rota on 16-19 June, there are two U.S. military flights from Rota to Panama City Florida: one direct flight from Rota to Panama City-Tallahassee (Florida), and one via Norfolk to Panama City, which both supports the claim from Seymour Hersh and from the BALTOPS “diving coordinator” about deep divers from Panama City or divers using equipment from Panama City at the BALTOPS-22 exercise (Source: Flightradar24).

[After some research on the air activity during the BALTOPS-22 exercise, I have added some material to section 3 of my Substack article from 21 March 2023 (“After Seymour Hersh’s article”). Hersh argues (8 February 2023) that during this exercise, the U.S. had used special deep-sea divers from Panama City Florida to prepare for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline. In Part I, I brought up the letter of the “coordinator for the divers”, who confirmed this. Below, in Part II, I will present additional support for Hersh’s story using “Flightradar24”. Journalists who argue that his claims are just fiction have to explain why two U.S. military flights that left the BALTOPS airbase Ronneby (Sweden) at the end of the exercise continued via U.S. Naval Base Rota (Spain) to Panama City Florida. One flight was a direct flight, the other went via Norfolk (Washington).]

Left: A U.S. Hercules going up from Sigonella to Ronneby on 3 June. Right: A U.S. C-40 Clipper arriving in Ronneby from Sigonella the following day, on 4 June.

Let us first look at the timeline. We will look at Flightradar24 that gives us information about flights coming in for the BALTOPS exercise. We know that days before BALTOPS-22, several U.S. military aircraft arrived at Ronneby (Kallinge) at Sweden’s Naval Base South in Karlskrona close to the Danish Island of Bornholm. These U.S. aircrafts arrived from U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella (Sicily, Italy) and from U.S. Naval Station Rota (at Cadiz in southern Spain) that had received U.S. aircraft coming in from Washington and from the major U.S. Naval Station Norfolk at Washington (U.S. Second Fleet Command or Atlantic Command and NATO Joint Forces Command). On 1 June, a U.S. Super Hercules C-130J went from Sigonella to Ronneby and then back to Sigonella (via Ramstein). On 3 June a U.S. C-130 Hercules arrived at Ronneby and then back to Sigonella (via Ramstein). On 4 June a U.S. C-40 Clipper left Sigonella and arrived at Ronneby. It then returned to Sigonella, and on 6 June the same C-40 Clipper left Sigonella in the morning, went to Rota to pick up people coming in from the U.S. and then, it once again went up to Ronneby.

Left: A Boeing C-40 Clipper going from Norfolk Naval Station (U.S. Fleet Command) outside Washington and is arriving to U.S. Naval Station Rota (Spain) on 4 June. Right: A U.S. C-40 Clipper going from Rota to Ronneby (Sweden) on 6 June. Several aircraft followed the same route.

n 3 June a U.S. C-40 Clipper had left Norfolk outside Washington, and the C40 arrived at Rota at mid-night, and the days before that a U.S. C-5M Super Galaxy and a U.S. C-17A Globemaster had arrived at Rota (the latter went further to Sigonella) both came from U.S. Naval Station Norfolk. There was also a Super Galaxy from Washington to Ramstein and a Hercules flight from Ramstein to Ronneby. On 29 May, two C-40 Clipper went back and forth from Florida to Norfolk. In a combined cargo-passenger mode, the C-40 is capable of carrying up to 70 passengers. The U.S Super Galaxy and the Globemaster have even larger capacity. There was a major influx of U.S. Navy personnel first to Rota and Sigonella and then further to Ronneby, which would have included coordinating officers for the BALTOPS exercise, public relations officers, technicians, and service and intelligence personnel.

Left: A C-40 Clipper (CNV6617) going from Ronneby on 17 June to Sigonella with a very short stop in Marseille. In parallel to the C-40, there is a C-130T Hercules (CNV6516) going from Ronneby direct to Rota. Right: Two hours later, the same Hercules arrives in Rota, while the C40 arrives in Sigonella at the same time. Another Hercules left Ronneby for Sigonella two days later. On 18-19 June, a U.S Globemaster, a Hercules and a C-40 left Sigonella for Rota.

U.S Naval Air Station Sigonella and Rota seem to have had a major role in the BALTOPS-22 events. A U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft from Sigonella was brought up to Nordholz Naval Airbase in northern Germany on 7 June, and it returned to Sigonella on 17 June. It patrolled the area east of Bornholm for a week in concert with another U.S. Poseidon coming in from Keflavik (Iceland) almost every day during the same period (a German Orion patrolled the Baltic Sea from Nordholz on a regular basis). The formal ending of the exercise took place in Kiel, Germany on 17 June with Chief Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday.

After the BALTOPS exercise, the American ships and aircraft left the Baltic. Already on 16 June, some people were brought on a U.S. C-130 Hercules from Ronneby to Rota, and the following day, a more comfortable C-40 Clipper brought Navy personnel from Ronneby to Sigonella, while another Hercules brought even more people from Ronneby to Rota. On 18 June, a Hercules and a Globemaster brought people from Sigonella to Rota and the above Clipper brought more people from Sigonella to Rota the following day. A Super Galaxy arrived in Rota from Norfolk on 19 June. On 20 June, a U.S. Globemaster left Rota for Washington and another Globemaster left Rota later the same day to arrive in Norfolk the following morning, and shortly afterwards it continued to Panama City. It then went back to Washington (via Charleston). This flight was apparently returning U.S. Navy personnel from the BALTOPS exercise not only to Norfolk but also to Panama City.

Left: A C-40 Clipper leaves Sigonella early in the morning for Rota on 19 June. A Hercules had left Sigonella for Rota the day before. Right: A C-17A Globemaster left Rota for Washington next day, while another U.S. Globemaster left Rota for Norfolk a few hours later. 

Left: On 20 June, a U.S. Globemaster left Rota (see above) and it arrived in Washington seven hours later. Right: Another Globemaster left Rota a few hours after the former plane and arrived in Norfolk early in the morning the following day. This plane continued to Panama City, Florida.

Left: The Globemaster in the former image left Rota on 20 June 21.45. Right: The same aircraft arrives in Panama City Florida (via Norfolk) 15 hours later. It had a four-hours stop in Norfolk.

On 20 June, the above Super Galaxy from the U.S. Naval Station Norfolk left Rota and landed late at night at Panama City-Tallahassee (Florida). Next day, it went back to Washington. These two planes clearly were flying in U.S. Navy personnel to Panama City, and Panama City is the primary U.S. Navy center for deep-sea diving. We have reasons to believe that the special deep-sea divers from Panama City or/and with gear from Panama City that Seymour Hersh and the BALTOPS “diving coordinator” spoke about were brought back from Ronneby to Panama City either on the direct flight with the Super Galaxy from Rota to Panama City or on the flight with the Globemaster to Panama City via Norfolk.

Left: On 20 June, after the flights from Ronneby to Rota on 16-19 June, there is one direct flight with a Super Galaxy from Rota to Panama City-Tallahassee (Florida). Right: This image shows the details of the same flight. It clearly supports the claim of Seymour Hersh and the BALTOPS “diving coordinator” about the U.S. Navy use of divers and equipment from Panama City.

It is striking that you had two flights that immediately after the BALTOPS exercise went from Ronneby to Panama City via Rota (and one also via Norfolk), and both these flights left U.S. Naval Station Rota for Panama City on the same day. This clearly supports Seymour Hersh’s claim that U.S. authorities had used divers from the Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center in Panama City for an operation against the Nord Stream pipelines during the BALTOPS exercise. The intelligence officers that the “Coordinator” and Thomas Röper spoke about would have come from Norfolk and Washington, while the deep-sea divers would have come from Panama City, Florida. It is also difficult to explain why you would have deep-sea divers at the BALTOPS exercise, when divers in this exercise only were training to locate simulated mines just below the surface. The deep divers from Panama City had nothing to do with the exercise. They were planting timers and explosives or navigation equipment to the Nord Stream pipelines.