Off the coast of North Carolina, June 30 - The call came over an open radio channel in a voice with a distinct southern cadence: "Warship! Get out of our waters!" The exchange was part of a simulated boarding carried out by Norwegian sailors taking part in multinational maritime exercises designed to sharpen NATO forces' ability to defend the American homeland.
During the drill, Norwegian Lieutenant Thomas Johannsen and his boarding team prepared to intercept a cargo vessel. With a crowded spectrum of nearby communications creating confusion, Johannsen switched to a clear frequency and radioed: "Please stop your vessel and accept my boarding team." The scenario was one among many in a set of U.S.-hosted exercises timed to coincide with the United States' 250th anniversary.
Journalists were granted access to one of the exercises on Friday, observing a day of operations that underscored the practical military ties among European navies and the U.S. Despite growing political tension in Washington over the costs and value of the transatlantic alliance, participating nations executed training designed to sustain readiness for collective defense.
Political backdrop
The drills come at a fraught moment for the 77-year-old alliance. In recent weeks, the administration in Washington has publicly questioned NATO's role and the distribution of defense burdens among allies. In a meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, President Donald Trump criticized Britain, Spain, Germany and France for their perceived lack of support in operations against Iran, saying, "We’re disappointed with most of them."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth further signaled a willingness to reassess U.S. military posture in Europe by announcing a six-month Pentagon review that could result in a drawdown of American forces on the continent. Hegseth singled out "free riding" allies as a motivating concern and described the alliance as needing to be reciprocal.
An internal Pentagon email, reported publicly in April, explored the possibility of suspending Spain from alliance access due to Spain's refusal to grant basing and overflight rights during U.S. operations against Tehran. Yet Spanish Marines participated in the maritime drills - FLEETEX 250 - conducting ship-to-shore amphibious operations alongside other allied contingents. French Marines also took part in drills, including heavy machine gun exercises at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Operational continuity despite politics
Former NATO intelligence chief David Cattler said the exercises convey a clear signal about European nations' capability and willingness to defend both sides of the Atlantic, though he expressed skepticism that such demonstrations would alter views within the Pentagon. "It’s hard for me to see," he said.
Analysts and current officers point out that military planning and exercises are usually scheduled months or years in advance and reflect persistent operational ties that can transcend political disagreements. Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine officer now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said working-level collaboration within the U.S. military and among allies typically continues unless explicitly halted. "This is just NATO being NATO," he said.
At sea with Standing NATO Maritime Group One
Reporters spent a day aboard Standing NATO Maritime Group One, commanded by British Commodore Maryla Ingham. The group consists of frigates and other surface combatants from Norway, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Turkey. Journalists reached the area by helicopter operated by the Canadian air force, landing on the flight deck about 40 nautical miles off the North Carolina shoreline.
Ingham noted that while her unit routinely operates in colder northern waters near the Arctic and the Baltic, where monitoring for Russian activity is a primary task, the current area of operations does not typically require as intensive patrolling. "This area doesn’t require as much patrolling because there isn’t as much threat here," she said.
For the commanding officer of the Norwegian frigate Fridtjof Nansen, Stian Buunk, the deployment marked his first time operating in American waters. Buunk described the capabilities of his ship, smaller than a U.S. destroyer but armed with air defense and anti-ship missiles, torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare and a 76 mm deck gun. Proximity to the U.S. Navy’s 2nd Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, meant allied vessels could integrate American assets into training. "We had anti-air warfare exercises two days ago with F-18s. We had drones coming in," he recounted. "And that makes it very realistic."
Norway brings particular expertise in anti-submarine warfare to NATO maritime forces. One exercise mobilized search-and-attack units to locate, track and expel a U.S. submarine used in the scenario. When asked how his ship performed, Buunk responded modestly: "This ship is built for anti-submarine warfare," then added, "So, yah."
Commodore Ingham highlighted other specializations among participating nations, noting Belgium's proficiency in anti-mine operations. "We are demonstrating both the flexibility in the reach of our unit, but also our ability to seamlessly operate alongside the Americans," she said.
Boarding drills and interoperability
The boarding exercise centered on a fictional smuggling case involving a vessel from an invented country called Pyropia; the actual target was a U.S. Navy training support ship. Norwegian forces took the precaution of clearing their weapons to prevent accidental discharge before boarding. Over radio, Johannsen inquired whether there were weapons or animals on board. The training ship replied with a bit of levity: "We had a goat. But we eat goat. So now, no more goat."
Lieutenant Erik Aasen, a navigation officer who led the Norwegian boarding team, said the search of the vessel uncovered rifles, four bags of narcotics and some cash issued by the fictional "National Bank of Garnet." Aasen described it as his first boarding operation outside Norwegian waters and singled out working alongside U.S. forces as the most valuable part of the exercise. U.S. counterparts, he said, "have a lot of other experiences."
Implications for future cooperation
Experts cautioned that if the Pentagon proceeds with plans to reduce reliance on U.S. troops in Europe, there could be fewer opportunities for such joint exercises in the future. Cancian suggested, however, that political constraints on the administration could limit the scale of any drawdown. He pointed to prior pushback in Congress when the Pentagon halted deployments of rotational forces to Poland and the Baltics earlier in the year, observing: "The president can do it, but you know there’s clearly a political price."
For now, the drills off the U.S. East Coast demonstrated continued operational cooperation among allied navies across a range of missions - from boarding and interdiction to anti-air and anti-submarine warfare - even as political leaders debate the alliance's costs and commitments.
Summary
Naval forces from multiple NATO member states conducted exercises off North Carolina to test and demonstrate interoperability in homeland defense tasks, including boarding operations and anti-submarine warfare. The activities took place amid U.S. political scrutiny of the alliance's burden-sharing and a Pentagon review that could alter U.S. force posture in Europe. Despite the political debate, military planners and participating units carried out planned drills involving ship-to-shore operations, air defense training with F-18s, and coordinated anti-submarine tactics.