Merlin Mk2 ASW from 820 Naval Air Squadron onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth hunted Norwegian Submarine HNoMS Utstein during an exercise.

In a Combined Anti-Submarine Exercise (CASEX), a group of ships and aircraft are given an area of water to search for submarines while the submarine acts as the enemy, attempting to undertake simulated missions against the surface forces.

The official account of the United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group, currently commanded by Commodore James Blackmore Royal Navy (COMUKCSG), tweeted the following.

What is the Carrier Strike Group doing?

The UK Carrier Strike Group, led by flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth, recently completed the first phase of its autumn deployment. This involved participating in a series of simulated strike missions in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea alongside international naval partners.

“HMS Queen Elizabeth and her embarked jets and helicopters have proven their ability to provide the “punch” of the UK Carrier Strike Group during a series of simulated strike missions alongside international partners”, the press release stated.

Joining the aircraft carrier for these combat simulations were several ships from the UK and allied nations. Among these were the Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond, Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker RFA Tideforce, Norwegian ships HNoMS Otto Sverdrup and HNoMS Maud, Dutch ships HNLMS De Zeven Provincien and HNLMS Van Amstel, and the Belgian frigate BNS Louise Marie.

The exercises featured HMS Queen Elizabeth’s F-35 Lightning fighter jets from 617 Squadron, Merlin helicopters from 820 Naval Air Squadron, and Wildcat helicopters from 815 and 847 Naval Air Squadrons. Their missions varied, ranging from defending against aerial threats to suppressing enemy air defences and executing strike attacks.

Additionally, HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group showcased their medical capabilities, including advanced resuscitation techniques, trauma surgery, and casualty evacuations.

The next phase of the deployment will feature UK forces collaborating with ships and personnel from Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) nations, which include countries such as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

Commodore James Blackmore, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, was quoted as saying, “CSG23 is off to a great start. Integrated training within the air and maritime environments, and alongside our European allies, has demonstrated the capability and agility of UK Carrier Strike.”

“Integrated training within the air and maritime environments, and alongside our European allies, has demonstrated the capability and agility of UK Carrier Strike”, reaffirmed Blackmore.

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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16 COMMENTS

  4. I wonder how small the area was and how ‘hard’ the sub tried..?

    I only ask this given a series of recent posts on here about how subs usually manage to win against surface units, including against USN CSG’s…

    I bet those small Norwegian subs are tough to find.

    Cheers CR

    • Wonder whether a CSG, P-8s, and an Astute class vs. one or more Virginia class (proxy for next gen PLAN force) would not be the most realistic training scenario? Probably on the future BN calendar.

      • Hi FormerUSAF,

        I would agree with you there, mate.

        I think it is safe to say that a friendly sub is the best ASW asset to have available, but current force levels in the RN and I think fair to say across NATO as well are such that there is no guarantee that one will be available.

        The RN and the RAF (P8) desperately need to be recapitalised. We can but hope.

        Cheers CR

    • Hi fella, the Ula’s are fairly old ladies now (30+ yo), but still very effective SMs. It doesn’t get any harder than this for ASW units, it’s really good trg, despite the fact that using a SSN as the Opfor would probably be more realistic.

  5. A bit of a dumb question here, but how do Maritime Patrol Aircraft hunt submarines? There are 300,000 square miles of sea in the British Economic Zone alone, and what about hunting subs in the North Atlantic? You can’t just pepper random spots with sonobuoys, can you?

    So is overflight using other plane-based sensors (eg magnetic or temperature anomoly) good enough to get an idea? Or is it all intelligence based from our subs, frigates and allies, so we already know there’s a sub in the area, whose position a P8/MQ-9B can narrow down with sonobuoys etc?

    • Dear Jon, if you know, you aren’t going to tell. If you don’t know you ask questions that amuse those that do…….

    • Depending on where you are operating in the World, there are other sensor systems that can point towards the area where a sub was detected and tracked.

      If you’ve read a bit of Tom Clancy or had experience with ASW? You’ll know what I’m talking about, especially in the North Atlantic.

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