An A400M Atlas has rapidly deployed one of the British Army Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) to Carlise Airport as part of Exercise Cobra Warrior.

The Ministry of Defence say that Exercise Cobra Warrior is focused on the high-end spectrum of fighting and is deliberately designed in nature to be challenging, offering a contested operating environment.

The aim of Exercise Cobra Warrior is to develop the tactical skills of participating aircrew and supporting elements within a Composite Air Operation environment.

A senior officer from the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) remarked, “The intent of Exercise Cobra Warrior was to bring allied forces together in order to enhance our ability to work collaboratively on demanding missions, in dynamic threat environments, by day and night. The Exercise met all of its objectives and I am pleased to say was a resounding success.”

Another high-point of the exercise was at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. This location became the temporary base for CF-18 Hornet fighter jets from the Royal Canadian Air Force.

These jets received air-to-air refuelling support from their CC-150 Polaris aircraft, based at RAF Lossiemouth in north Scotland. Moreover, Waddington played host to a NATO E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) that oversaw large swathes of battlespace, providing essential surveillance and communication.

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George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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49 COMMENTS

    • Trust me, I wholeheartedly agree with you in terms of the number of various platforms, whether it be artillery, ships, frontline combat aircraft, troop numbers etc, we seem to have so little of everything, which if we were Belgium you could understand, yet the UK has the 7th biggest defence budget on earth with so little to show for it, many people on this site seem to believe it’s not a problem, I wish I had their confidence.

      • Budget is not enough compared with it’s spent on. Nuclear stuff takes a chunk. New equipment is expensive so that’s another chunk, wages, pensions and anything else the government could add to the budget is there. Training and operations.
        It’s all here broken down. Defence is an expensive business
        https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/defence-departmental-resources-2022/mod-departmental-resources-2022#:~:text=In%202021%2F22%2C%2029.3%25,%25%20(£85%20million).

        • As I’ve commented on another thread, 3% is the direction, surely? Shapps repeated it again this weekend. I wanna see both main parties committing to 3% for me to at least consider a vote.

      • It is not that it isn’t a problem mate, just some of us who understand defence and its thousands of strands and commitments ( like nuclear capability, and a whole list of other commitments and assets we have that other nations do not ) can see the wider picture.

        Johns “we’re shit” as we only have the one without context is hardly helpful either. Japan and Poland are the two most banded about as examples of why we are crap and they have lots of everything. Yet they do not have a string of overseas bases to fund, for example.

        Since when did lots of everything count one iota without the capability and ability to use it, logistics to back it up, training and professionalism to do it correctly ( look at Russia and their masses ) the intelligence network to oversee the operation, and finally the political will to actually use the stuff?

        Can you tell me of Poland and Japans abilities in those areas please? Considering they have no overseas bases and cannot actually deploy at scale beyond their border?

      • Dee bee we are an island with global aspirations..that makes numbers far less meaningful than for other nations…just as an example China

        china has vast numbers of escorts vs the RNs 19 but they don’t have the logistics to deploy significantly beyond their region…or deploy a carrier battle group across the globe.

        the reality is if one of the pacific nations huge navy’s ( china ) and the RN had to fight a campaign in around say east Africa foe some reason the RN would win…even against china..the RN can put the better task group together and deploy it for longer than china could…what you have in numbers is not what you can get to a fight on the global stage…most nations have to focus on close in and home defence where numbers do matter…the UK armed forces are a global force where the investment is in making sure they can be deployed…basically because we are an island stuck out at the end of a continent with a stable security picture with lots of friends between us and potentially enemies.

      • 7th largest budget means nothing if you don’t have a reliant local industry around it, France spends less for more because it has a thriving defence industry, i think it was in 2022 that it became the second largest exporter of weapons after the US, and ahead of China and Russia

      • We have the 3rd biggest navy on the planet, which is where we spend out defence budget, and that is the best way to spend our budget because we’re an island, so no risk of land invasion and we have a pretty good sized airforce too, but we’re not in much risk from aircraft either given our distance from Russia.

        So while we are lacking on land vehicles quite badly, it’s better to be lacking them than lacking Naval vessels.

        And we have 2 highly capable CVs with the best stealth fighters in the world and the best fleet defence ships in the world. Etc etc.

        If you are going to lament anything lament that we don’t have MORE of those ships

          • Tbf “biggest” was a bad choice of words. 3rd most powerful is more accurate.

            Like if you go off just number of ships north Korea is technically 2nd or 3rd in the world.

            But in reality we have 2 aircraft carriers, which is (joint) second only to the USA. And their capacity is second only to USA and China and they carry the best planes innthe word. And our type 45s are the best in the world at what they do.

            Literally the only navies we couldn’t beat is China or Russia. But it is very close, Japan or France are on par, India isn’t far behind either. Etc.

          • “…only navies we couldn’t beat is China or Russia.”

            I think our subs could sink the ruZZia navy!

      • On the other hand, Russia has loads of kit on a relatively modest budget, but I don’t think anyone fully appreciated the depth of inadequacy of that kit until they tried to invade Ukraine.

    • John wrote:

      “”This is the only one got. What a joke the UK military is””

      Exercise Cobra warrior is/was a RAF air exercise and this one saw over 50 aircraft tip up from:
      NATO: Two AEWF E-3A Sentries.
      The Italian Air Force: Gulfstream E-550A
      Royal Canadian Air Force: Seven CF-188A Hornet jets from 433 Tactical Fighter Sqn supported by a CC-150 Polaris air-to-air refuelling aircraft
      Royal Norwegian Air Force : Six 332 Skv F-35A Lightnings
      United States Air Force: 18 F-16C/Ds supported by a pair of Arizona ANG KC-135R
      The rest are from the RAF. The RAF’s Air Mobility Force also took part in the exercise deploying elements of 16 Air Assault Brigade during an associated ground mission that forms part of the overall exercise scenario. I can only presume the loading of a MRLS and having a quick cabbie to Carlise and back was that associated ground mission. and was more about the loading crew, learning how to tie down the damn thing in real life than anything else, possibly part of which was to ensure that National Airlines Flight 102 (April 2013) never happens again.

    • That’s a nonsense statement …do you mean the one:

      1)picture ?
      2) A400 ? Because the RAF have 22 of those which in its own right is a strategic and tactical lift that many nations can only dream of…let alone 8 C17 ( which is a capability beyond anything other than the US can bring) or the 12 voyagers..infact the reality is the RAFs strategic lift capability is second only to the US….so what exactly do you want here and what is the benchmark for a joke…..is our strategic airlift capability a joke unless it can match that of the preeminent superpower ?
      2) the GMLRS well we have 44 of those operational which is about the same as our peers..so what’s the issue ?

      there are lots of gaps in capability as well as need for recapitalisation in some areas of the armed forces…but to call the UKs armed forces is in itself either a joke or shows a profound miss understanding of the threat we face….we are not going to war with the US for global domination and hegemony and at present we can match any other peer in any realistic likely campaign.

  2. I was going to query what effect the vehicle tracks would have on the floor of the A400 but, in the reloading sequence, I noted there were wooden (?) boards on the deck to take the tracks. However, I guess aircraft floors would always need some special protection from tracked vehicles. Just saying…

    • Have we actually moved a GMLRS by A400 before? You are aware every bit of kit moved is different and has to be trialled and tested, so why do we in this case need to move more than one via air in an exercise?

      Furthermore, the GMLRS belongs to DRSB, a heavy formation that will not, no matter how many launchers we have or how many Atlas we have, or how shit we are, be moved in its entirety by the RAFs ATF. If that Bde every deploys beyond Europe’s borders it goes by sea, via the Points Sea lift vessels that carry hundreds of vehicles at a time.

      Now it is indeed possible that the SOB, or 16AA, or 3 Cdo, or some lighter formation or BG somewhere may need such a key asset, in which case this exercise shows how that will be possible with Atlas. Farouk’s comment below on HIMARS rather than GMLRS feeds into this as that is a wheeled system better for rapid deployment.

  4. The British Army has 44 launchers with plans to upgrade & increase numbers. The USMC practice the deployment of single & pairs of HIMARs as part of dispersal of fires. Considering M270 has twice the missile load it’s a good capability to practice. Seems a further strain on the air transport fleet though.

    • Correct, and expanding to 75 launchers and 10 recovery vehicles. This is great training for that, and yet “we’re shit” 🙄

    • Poland have ordered 500 HIMAR I stand by my comment the UK military are a joke punching above its weight, would only last a week in a real war, politicians who mostly no nothing other than how to fill out an expense form have destroyed our military.

      • How many SSBNs, SSNs, carriers, LPDs do the poles have? I don’t disagree that politicians have let our capabilities dwindle but there has to be some perspective.
        The poles have only just got their act together & are extremely close to the land based threat. Their actions also make their flank Potentially adding MLRS to e.g. Estonia could be an important capability having potentially PRSM & other PGMs also. To be honest my concern is that 22 A400m 8 C-17 is too small especially if we’re supposedly contributing to the Pacific (haha).
        I also say HIMARS completely unsuitable to a manpower restricted British Army that is struggling to recruit (this also makes any large procurement difficult to resource). We need automation & force multipliers hence move to Archer etc.

      • We are an island, everything we have we have to move and deploy to a a far away place or it’s pointless..Poland has a land boarder with its major enemy it does not need to go anywhere…it can buy 500 we have to also buy the capability to move whatever we have and then also the logistics train to keep it deployed…. We could buy a 1000 MBTs etc…but what do we do with them…?

  5. You’d think that in light of how the British MOD has spent so much time and effort in affording the Military an expeditionary warfare capability, that they would have purchased a few HIMARS simply in which to allow the deployment of a number of lightweight MRLS systems to support any QRF which finds itself in the middle of nowhere at the behest of any future government (Looks at a future government) which would quite happily send British troops to the latest bunfight in which to look good on the world stage, but on that note, I’m pretty sure the Swedish don’t need our help. 

    • I’m actually impressed by this. The A400M can land on some pretty rough airstrips, unload an MLRS, fire off a load of rockets and hopefully reload and be gone before counter fire. Potentially very useful, especially for an island hoping campaign, cough cough, pacific, cough cough against China. This is precisely how the US marines are hoping to conduct spoiling operations against future Chinese incursions into sovereign and democratic neighbouring states- eg Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan.

      • Assuming that China wants to practice incursions on all these places at once, if at all. Conjuring up an unlikely war you lot. China will conquer the world with good business practices. The western model of regime change and knocking over countries for their resources is a bit played out in the 21st century, tho France still giving it a go in Africa. Thing is, even there, younger populations not putting up with puppets for leaders anymore. Only place China seems hell bent on recovering is Taiwan, and that’s where US Marines will get wiped out if they go in. Home court advantage to China, which will focus 90 percent of its forces against the US 60 percent, and Japans 100 percent. But, USA will have to be the aggressor there, as China will eventually win without fighting otherwise. India will only fight China if directly threatened in the Himalayas. QUAD, AUKUS, all designed by Uncle Sam to subdue China which has no history of pillaging 40 plus nations in the last 70 years since WWII. Roman Empire 2.0 is a wounded beast in terminal decline. Its Nato vassal states need to flee from under its claws. Why would Britain, which has an ‘independent’ nuclear deterrent, accept becoming an aircraft carrier for American nuclear bombs over which it will have no control? Makes the UK prime target for a retaliatory strike, ahead of the US, in a ‘limited’ nuclear conflict.

        • It’s all the big bad wests fault. Seeing how China economy is based on the wests economy it’s a bad example.
          Are western countries perfect? Nope. But I’d rather live here where I’m free to write what I think. I assume you do aswell as you couldn’t write what u think in those. Brilliant countries. Or in China they won’t let you on a computer for more than your allotted time

        • Agree your assessment of India and of China’s territorial ambitions being limited to Taiwan; but Taiwan is a strategic hi tech supplier to the West. Broadly agree with your thoughts on China’s use of business and trade to gain influence; they are emulating how the British increased the empire…they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery….just replace Victorian engineering and a navy with microchips and a navy. But no-one is going to drop English for Mandarin though 🙂
          Not sure the Roman Empire 2.0 is finished. What the West has that Chinese culture does not have, is a belief in the resurrection, the ability to come back; though the Pope is working hard to grow the church in China. If he succeeds Chinese Christians will bring down the CCP and China will become culturally western. But there will likely be a period of internal turmoil.

          • Once people begin to realise that trade with CCP means giving up our hard won freedom they may understand that the full price is far more than the initial cost paid.
            The only vote you have with the CCP is to Not buy!
            Otherwise you are accepting their disregard for human rights, international rule of law, fair trade, intellectual property and democracy.
            The orcs may have weaponised energy and food but much worse is to come from imperial CCP.

          • Don’t worry…I expect the Tory cabinet will still be able to afford a Chinese Range Rover, Eton, Aberdeen Angus and foie gras. The rest of us will eating lab grown meat. But think positive…at least it won’t be laced with US hormones.

        • “”China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact.” – PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, 2010

          This is all you need to know about the world view of the the political leaders of the prc to understand what’s coming.

    • Totally agree that we should purchase a number of wheeled based systems for the army. Would much rather we went and purchased Isreal’s PULS system and integrated it onto a Supacat HMT600 chassis instead of HIMARS. Added benefit is that PULS has more versatility with its rockets and is considerably cheaper then HIMARS.
      Seems a bit of a ‘no brainer’ to me, to get some form of wheeled rocket artillery for our forces. I have read lots of different potential capability requirements for the UK ‘Fires’ upgrades, but to date haven’t seen anything to suggest a capability like HIMARS/PULS is something we are considering.

      • Fully agree but personally heavy, medium & light should have access to appropriate fires. To me that means Tracked, Double wheeled launcher & HMT. If CH-47 can deploy from ship to shore to islands as well surely adds to flexibility – unfortunately other than 105mm on HMT600 does seem little action in this area.

      • We are just expanding the GMLRS force, with longer ranged precision munitions to go with it.
        But yes, I would like to see HIMARs in the wheeled formations of 1 UK Div but no budget for that.

  6. I wonder how much planning it took.
    Better test is to give 24-48 hours notice with the deployers (sic) being unaware of the ‘ask’ until the exercise starts.
    What have the MoD got against Carlise, other than that is is a very quite airfield?

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