Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters operating alongside drones from 700X Squadron conducted three weeks of intensive exercises in the fjords around Bergen during Exercise Tamber Shield, testing tactics against fast attack boats, simulated missile threats, and aerial targets, according to a Royal Navy news update.
The exercise, run under the banner of the Joint Expeditionary Force, brought together the Royal and Royal Norwegian Navies to develop tactics for dealing with fast, agile threats in narrow waters. The 2026 iteration introduced two new elements: 700X’s Puma drones, which scouted ahead of the Wildcats feeding targeting and threat information directly into cockpits, and RAF electronic warfare specialists from Spadeadam in Cumbria, who simulated infrared and radar-based missile threats to give helicopter crews live practice of evasion tactics using chaff and flares.
Wildcats from 815 Naval Air Squadron operated from both Haakonsvern, the home of the Norwegian Navy, and from the flight deck of HMS Duncan, which was escorting HMS Prince of Wales in the region. Armed with Martlet missiles, the helicopters practised engagements against fast patrol boats on the water and drones in the air, with the Royal Navy’s P2000 patrol boats HMS Archer, Biter, and Example working alongside Norway’s heavily-armed Skjold-class corvettes to provide opposition forces.
Able Seaman Rob Scott, on his first deployment with HMS Biter, said the exercise had given him a genuine taste of operational life. “Hiding in a fjord when we successfully spotted a Wildcat helicopter and were able to ‘kill’ it by simulating a surface-to-air missile attack was particularly enjoyable. Tamber Shield has been an exciting experience that has allowed me to see more of the world and gain a real insight into life on deployment. It has also been a valuable and interesting experience working alongside other UK forces and Norwegian personnel.”
Pilot Lieutenant Hal Wotton of 815 Naval Air Squadron said in the release that the exercise had delivered meaningful tactical development. “Tamber Shield has been extremely beneficial. It’s allowed us to refine our tactical development, using the challenging environment of the fjords to simulate realistic threat scenarios, including ambushes and counter-fast-patrol-boat engagements.”
Aircrew also conducted torpedo runs in the fjords, dropping Sting Ray torpedoes, with the opportunity taken to give those who had not previously done so the chance to carry out the drills. General training tasks were also completed, including winching crew on to and off the small deck spaces of the P2000 patrol boats. Ashore, both navies participated in Bergen’s commemorations marking 82 years since liberation from Nazi occupation at the end of the Second World War.
Alongside the in-Norway activity, a parallel exercise was run at RNAS Yeovilton testing the mesh network intended to become a central part of future Tamber Shield editions and front-line operations more broadly, seamlessly sharing data between drones, helicopters, and headquarters to speed up decision-making and allow Martlet operators to engage fast-moving swarm threats more quickly.
ridiculous, not a single frigate in that fjord. What’s the navy coming to, bloody kier starmar 😊
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HMS Biter knocked out a Wildcat with a SAM.
Well there you go then, scrap all the T45’s T23’s T31’s and T26’s. We don’t need them now.
Indeed, all are obsolete, including the Carriers if you believe some with an agenda. 🙄
All assets have their part to play, all complement the other, and we lack enough of any of them.
I’m looking forward to all these Drones we keep saying we will be buying, actually being ordered.
In a compact environment like a fjord a wildcat would be lethal against a T45 destroyer and a patrol boat with a MPAD would be lethal against a wild cat.
MPAD capabilities are often under rated and over looked as a naval capability but they do have their place.
In a compact environment like a Fjord, the T45’s Phalanx would shred any Wildcat that showed itself
We took our Cat to the Vets In our Ford a while back, It turned Into a Wildcat too.
hope that helps.
So will 700X Sqns Puma Drones actually be bought in any significant number and used more widely?
Or, as usual, a trial to add to the trials and we have a handful in service?
Will LMM be fitted to the Archers!
The have bought drones and they continue to expand their use via these trials, the have purchased 90 so far, see below
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has a fleet of 90 AeroVironment Puma small unmanned aircraft systems (specifically the Puma AE and LE variants) in operational service.
While the MoD is historically highly guarded about exact inventory figures for its tactical uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), the fleet breakdown reflects how these assets are distributed and their current role within the armed forces:
The Fleet: The 90 Puma drones in service primarily equip the Royal Navy’s 700X Naval Air Squadron (based at RNAS Culdrose) and the British Army’s 32 Regiment Royal Artillery.
Maritime & Amphibious Use: The Royal Navy expanded its fleet back in late 2021 by securing an additional batch of 12 aircraft along with enhanced training. These are actively deployed across the fleet, notably on River-class offshore patrol vessels (like HMS Tamar and HMS Mersey) and by Royal Marines Commandos for short-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).
Transition under Project TIQUILA: The Puma systems are currently operating alongside newer capabilities. Under the MoD’s £129 million Project TIQUILA (managed by Lockheed Martin as the systems integrator), the military is heavily scaling its small drone inventory. This includes taking delivery of 99 Stalker v2 and 159 Indago 4 packable drones, which will gradually modernise and replace older tactical UAS assets in front-line infantry and reconnaissance roles.
Hi Jim.
Yes, you’re including the Army there with those figures. It’s long since old news that Puma replaced Desert Hawk III in the TUAS Regiment of the RA, 32 Reg, as you detail.
And Indigo 4 and Stalker will replace them. I believe one of these has been renamed since, to Eagle.
I was referring more to RN use, but, interesting, I wasn’t aware of the 12 extra bought in 2021, nor that they’ve been used on River Class.
“Across the fleet” I’m a bit more dubious about, though.
Has every Escort, RFA, OPV got a Det of Puma? I doubt.
LMM on the Archers would make a lot of sense but what system of delivery? Shoulder launch or deck mounted. Single or multiple launcher system? Is there space forward to mount a permanent system?
This suggestion has been posted before by others but why not a marinised StarStresk/LMM launcher, maybe with a bit of “ER” treatment? The French have done it with their Mistral why not the UK? Single, Double, Triple vertical, 2×3 stack, 4×3 stack, they could incorporate the EO off the Rapid Sentry. Could be good for OPVs, RFAs, Points, landing craft, backup to CAMM 12.5/30/40mm and Ancilia. Seems a silly obvious possibility that the UK to do with Thales, SEA and or MSI. Sure missed the “Phalanx/SeaRAM” boat with not backing SeaStreak version 1! Still can for a version 2! Maybe marinised Star Hammer and Sky Hammer may also be possible?
Anyone know if when are the Archers due to be replaced and with what?
In the end however appealing it would be to arm the archers.. they are not designed as combatants at all.. they are to small, to underpowered and to fragile.
Look at the Norwegian Skjold-class, 270 tons, top speed of 60knots ( flat seas) or the Swedish Visby-class 640 tons, 35 knots… the archers 50 tons and 20knots..
In reality if we want to play littoral or enclosed sea combat the RN needs a different type of combatant than its had before.. and I don’t believe it will do it.. I mean it’s built a full fat 2000 ton combatant with full naval scantlings and shock resistance/survivability, but refuses to put anything more than a 30mm cannon on it because it’s not a frigate… would it lower itself to build a 500 ton North Sea and Baltic combatant.. not a chance.
So it seems to me the Archers spend a lot of time messing around in enclosed waters playing at being missile boats.. because shock horror small missile boats in enclosed waters are profoundly effective.. and small drones in enclosed waters are profoundly effectively against large surface combatants..
This is part of that profound change that drones are making.. enclosed seas and littorals are now essentially the death of major surface combatants.. nobody in their right Nogging is going to send major combatants into the littoral after the lessons of a nation with no real navy essential gutting a Russian fleet. Even the USN are only sent a token set of major surface combatant’s through the strait of Hormuz.. after essentially spending weeks smashing the enemy to pieces and I would imagine with a massive operation to protect them as they moved through.
For enclosed seas it looks like a mix of smaller surface combatant’s and integrated small drones may be the order of the day..
On the highs seas for blue water operations it’s a different question.. western navies have now remembered something profoundly important about naval conflict that they forgot in their overwhelming power and with a huge bit of technological hubris.. naval conflict is a function of mass..and they now see large blue water drones as a way out of a serious mess they have got into reducing mass.. even the mighty US navy has a massive mass issue, facing as it does a navy with way more major surface combatants and submarines than it now has..
The larger navy has in about 90% of major naval wars won against the smaller navy, even if that smaller navy had more technically advanced ships… the RN did not utterly dominate because it had more advanced ships or started with more skills and better doctrine.. infact for most of its existence the RN has lived with mediocre ships.. for a maritime nation britain has never really exceeded expectations in ship building.. we have generally been conservative pragmatists who only pushed when we really had to, what we did understand more than any other nation was the need to be there and turn up with the right mass of just the right type of ship.not flash, just enough to do the job and we did that in every conceivable place.. we drowned the enemy in the concept of always being there. The Spanish always had small British ships yapping at their doors..the French spent the Napoleonic war completely unable to concentrate because there was always a British ship on the horizon, where as the RN could concentrate or desegregate at will, the German high seas fleet ( with far better ships) was alway faced with more…it’s scattered cruisers and U boats always hunted. In WW2 there was always an escort to face the Uboats. Every German major surface combatant was hunted by packs of surface combatants until they had no place to go .. and British naval doctrine and its skills as a service developed beyond everyone else because it was alway there.. it’s crews and captains aways practicing…they were not born better.. they simply had more captains, more crews with greater opportunities to practice… large navies not only have the mass to be everywhere and everywhen they have the ships and crews to take time to practice and perfect.
HMS massive sitting in the middle of an ocean on its own. Not able to tie down the enemy or prevent it from either consentrating or Disaggregating at will, not able to practice or perfect spend time training with other crews or perfecting doctrine… it will die to the navy with mass even if that mass made up of HMS crappies.. and even if it does not die the HMS Crappies will have been off winning the war while HMS massive sits in one place like the big self licking lollipop it is.