SNMG1 Conducts Change of Command Ceremony

Commodore Søren Thinggaard Larsen of the Royal Danish Navy assumed command of Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) from Commodore Petter Kammerhuber of the Royal Norwegian Navy today (Jan 16) in a ceremony held in Bergen, Norway.
SNMG1 has been under Norwegian command since January 2017, under the command of Commodore Ole Morten Sandquist (January to July) and Commodore Petter Kammerhuber (July to January). During this period, Norway has provided staff officers flagship for the group in addition to this key leadership function. For the first semester, HNoMS Roald Amundsen served as the flagship, and was relieved by HNoMS Otto Sverdrup for the second semester.
Commodore Søren Thinggaard Larsen will command the group from the new flagship, Danish frigate HDMS Niels Juel.
Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) is one of four standing maritime forces composed of ships from various Allied countries. These vessels provide a continuous maritime capability for NATO to perform different tasks ranging from partnership building and enhancing NATO relationships to being able to conduct high intensity warfare. They also serve as an on call maritime force as a part of the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) while demonstrating forward presence and contributing to operational interoperability among Allied naval forces to support greater regional security and stability. The Standing Naval Forces are visible demonstrations of Alliance capability.