The Royal Air Force Poseidon P-8A force, based at RAF Lossiemouth, took a leading role in Exercise Dynamic Mongoose 2026, providing the UK’s air power contribution to one of NATO’s principal anti-submarine warfare exercises, according to the RAF.
Running from 18 to 29 May, the exercise was directed by NATO Maritime Command and drew together surface ships, submarines and aircraft from the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Denmark across the North Sea and the High North. According to the RAF, the aim was to sharpen the alliance’s ability to find and defeat underwater threats in waters off Norway and Iceland, a region the service describes as strategically vital to both NATO security and wider global stability given the critical shipping lanes and undersea infrastructure that run through it.
Crews flew sorties in which the Poseidon acted as both hunter and hunted, working through scenarios intended to mirror the pressures of real operations. Anti-submarine warfare is among the most demanding tasks in modern air operations, and one P-8 aircrew member, quoted anonymously in the release, captured the difficulty of the work. “It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” the crew member said. “Do it alone and it’s incredibly difficult; but together, sharing small pieces of intelligence, you build the bigger picture of what’s happening below the surface.”
To carry out that tracking, RAF P-8 crews used detection tools including sonobuoys and Electronic Signal Underwater Sound devices to simulate engagements against submarines. The RAF said each sortie offered live training in tactical flying, tracking and communications under pressure, producing what it characterised as a force better prepared for operations where coordination and speed of decision-making matter most.
The exercise also drew on closer ties between the UK and Germany. A German Navy P-8A Poseidon detachment operated from RAF Lossiemouth during the period, an arrangement the RAF linked to the Trinity House Agreement signed by the two countries in November 2024. A Bundeswehr representative, quoted in the release, said the deployment was valuable for building interoperability.
“This deployment offered an outstanding opportunity to conduct intensive maritime operations alongside allies and strengthen interoperability,” the representative said. “In today’s challenging security environment, unity, trust and cooperation among P-8A nations are essential for credible defence.” The representative added that the support provided at RAF Lossiemouth reflected the spirit of the agreement and contributed to the exercise’s success.
Dynamic Mongoose is held annually in northern European waters and rotates through host nations and operating areas, bringing allied maritime patrol aircraft, frigates and submarines together to practise tracking and prosecuting subsurface contacts. For the RAF, the message from this year’s iteration was that integration, interoperability and shared intelligence offer decisive advantages in the contest beneath the surface.
It’s certainly one of the positives that has been generated by years of cuts, we now operate virtually an identical MPA fleet across the North Atlantic and the combined force is substantial. Much the same for the future T26 program.
Modern weapons are ridiculously expensive. the US is showing even with a 1.2 Trillon dollar budget there are still multiple capability gaps that exist and almost all fleets can be too small to maintain in required numbers.
For this reason NATO is more important than ever and our potential adversaries could never dream of being part of such a broadly capable alliance and they would suffer in any combat scenario without such an alliance.
Look how ineffective even the USA has been in the gulf without allied support.