Commander Laanemets was born in 1981 in Tallinn. He was conscripted in 2000, trained as a yeoman, and served on patrol craft Suurop. He was selected to attend the Royal Danish Naval Academy, which he graduated in 2006 as a warfare branch officer.

His initial assignments include Navigation and Communications Officer on minehunter Sulev, deployed to Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) in 2006,
and on command and support vessel Admiral Pitka. Thereafter Commander Laanemets served as staff officer in the Estonian Naval Staff’s operations department

After Mine Warfare Officer’s course at HMS Collingwood, UK Commander Laanemets was assigned to minehunter Admiral Cowan as XO and deployed to SNMCMG1 in 2010. Same year he attended the Advanced Mine Warfare Officer’s course at Netherlands-Belgian Mine Warfare School EGuerMin.

Commander Laanemets was the first Estonian officer to attend International Principle Warfare Officer’s Course at HMS Collingwood, UK, followed by practical sea time on board US frigate Taylor deployed to Indian Ocean for Counter-Piracy Operation Ocean Shield. From 2012, he was assigned to Naval Training Establishment to pass on his knowledge and experience to officer cadets in newly started Estonian naval officer course at the Estonian Military Academy.

Commander Laanemets commanded minehunter Sakala 2015-2016, again deployed to SNMCMG1 in 2016. Thereafter, he served as the acting head of Naval Training Establishment and in 2018 as Chief of Staff of SNMCMG1.

After graduating from Joint Command and General Staff Course at the Baltic Defence College in 2019, he served as J3 5 staff officer at the Estonian Defence Forces HQ. In 2022
he commanded SNMCMG1 during NATO’s collective defence operation Brilliant Shield. Since 2023 he serves as Commander of Estonian Mine Warfare Squadron.

Commander Laanemets holds MSc in Maritime Studies from Tallinn Technical University and professional master’s degree in Military Leadership and Security from National Defence
Academy of Latvia. He is married with Sigrid, has three children and a dog. His hobbies include reading, running and swimming.