Exercises are the loudest recurring signal in Baltic security, and the easiest to misread. A rehearsal announced months ahead reads very differently from the same troop movement discovered on a satellite image, and an exercise that disperses on schedule reads very differently from one that does not.
This page indexes every exercise the Baltic Monitor has covered in detail during 2026, with dates, scale and the country running it. Each entry has its own reference page.
| Exercise | When in 2026 | Where | Run by | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallant Boar 2026 (also "Brave Boar", Drąsusis šernas) | 16–26 June 2026 | Poland (Orzysz area) and Lithuania, at the Suwałki corridor | Lithuania, Poland and France — no lead nation named | finished |
| BALTOPS 2026 | 4–19 June 2026 (active afloat phase) | Baltic Sea, from the Skagerrak/Kattegat to the Gulf of Riga | NATO / United States — command reported two different ways | finished |
| Namejs 2026 | 2 September – 8 October 2026 | Latvia, nationwide | Latvian National Armed Forces / NATO MND North | ongoing |
| Strong Griffin 2026 | 2–20 September 2026 (under way) | Lithuania, Švenčionys district | Lithuania / "Griffin" Infantry Brigade | ongoing |
| Baltic Trust 26 (BATT26) | 3–14 August 2026 (main phase; reports of the end date differ) | Sēlija range, southern Latvia | Latvia's National Armed Forces / NATO NCIA | finished |
| Freedom Shield 2026 (26-I) | Dates not recorded; reported under way 10–23 June 2026 | Pabradė, Lithuania | German Bundeswehr — 45th Panzer Brigade "Litauen" | — |
| Vigorous Warrior 2026 | 8–20 June 2026 (active phase 12–17 June) | Estonia, Harju and Lääne-Viru counties | Estonian Defence Forces / NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine | finished |
| Ramstein Flag 2026 (RAFL 26) | Northern phase 8–19 June 2026 | Airspace of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark | NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) | finished |
| Baltic Zenith 2026 | early June 2026 (reports differ) | Latvia, Jūrmalciems range | Latvia | finished |
| Zapad 2026 | Never scheduled | — | — | — |
How to read an exercise
Four questions decide whether a given exercise is routine or significant.
Was it announced in advance? Scheduled, notified exercises are a stabilising factor in this monitor's daily assessment, not an escalatory one. Surprise readiness checks are the opposite.
Does it disperse? The dangerous pattern historically is not the exercise itself but the force concentration that stays in place when the exercise ends. That is why exercise reporting on this site continues past the closing ceremony.
Where is it, exactly? Distance from a border, and specifically from the Suwałki corridor and the Kaliningrad exclave, changes the meaning of an identical force package.
Who is watching? Both sides schedule around each other. NATO exercises in the corridor and Russian Baltic Fleet activity out of Kaliningrad are frequently reported in the same week, and each is cited by the other as justification.
Exercises that were reported and then retracted
Two entries in this monitor's 2026 record were reported as approaching exercises and then withdrawn. Both are documented rather than deleted, because a monitor that quietly removes its mistakes cannot be checked.
Zapad 2026 was treated as a real approaching exercise in the issues of 2 to 10 August 2026. The issue of 11 August published a correction: the strategic Zapad exercises are quadrennial, the last was Zapad-2025 in September 2025, and no Zapad-2026 was ever announced. The full explanation is on the Zapad 2026 page.
"July Storm", a Russian Navy exercise, was initially reported as announced for 23 to 27 July 2026 and then explicitly reversed from 22 July onward. Figures circulating at the time — around 150 ships and 15,000 personnel — belong to the 2025 iteration of that exercise, not to any 2026 event.
Both corrections are recorded in the site's public corrections log.
Frequently asked questions
What military exercises are happening in the Baltics right now?
The status column in the table above is derived from each exercise's dates and the latest published issue, so it shows which are upcoming, running and finished at the time the page was last built.
Was there a Zapad exercise in 2026?
No. The Zapad strategic exercises are quadrennial; the last was Zapad-2025 in September 2025 and the next is expected around 2029.
Which is the largest exercise in the region?
Different exercises claim different superlatives depending on the domain. BALTOPS is described in the daily issues as NATO's largest Baltic naval exercise of 2026, and Namejs 2026 as Latvia's largest national defence event of the year.
Do these exercises mean war is coming?
Not on their own. Announced, scheduled exercises are treated in this monitor's methodology as a stabilising factor; what would change the assessment is force concentration that does not disperse afterwards. See Will Russia attack the Baltics?
Sources
- Issues archive — daily coverage of each exercise as it ran
- Methodology — how exercise density is weighted in the escalation index
- Corrections log — including the Zapad-2026 and "July Storm" retractions
This page is maintained alongside the daily digests; the table above updates automatically as exercise pages are added.