According to an open-source Danish security assessment, in mid-June 2014, three months after Putin's Kremlin attacked and annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, Russian aircraft carrying live missiles bluffed an attack on Bornholm. ...
Located in the Baltic Sea east of peninsular Denmark, north of Poland's coast and to the rear of what was East Germany, Bornholm gave the Free World outpost north of and behind Warsaw Pact lines.
Bornholm Island was on my mind even as I discussed a Gotland Island scenario.
Even when I make a mistake, I'm more right than I know!
Since NATO moved east, now the island is more useful to screen our entry into the Baltic and to project power east.
That would be useful if the Russians move through the Baltic States into Poland and attempt to link up with their Kaliningrad enclave.
Our Marines could be busy in the Baltic Sea, it seems.
UPDATE: And NATO warships. When 50 ships gather to exercise off of Scotland, I think it is safe to say that we really aren't worried about Russia's northern fleet sallying out to the North Atlantic to cut our sea lines of communication.
If the Russians ever make a push at our Baltic or Polish NATO allies, these ships could push into the Baltic Sea to support our allies and threaten the flanks of any Russian conventional offensive through the Baltic states.
