Royal Marines boarded the German support ship FGS Berlin by air and by sea during Exercise Strike Warrior, fast-roping from a Merlin helicopter while a second team climbed from a rigid inflatable boat, according to Defence Operations.
The post said the commandos were “making an entrance the commando way” and had boarded the vessel “sharpening their skills alongside NATO allies”, adding: “Training together to defend together.”
⚓ Making an entrance the commando way@RoyalMarines boarded German warship FGS Berlin by air and sea during Exercise Strike Warrior, sharpening their skills alongside @NATO allies.
🛡️Training together to defend together.#ExStrikeWarrior #SW26 pic.twitter.com/F2D1ya5Mhf
— Defence Operations 🇬🇧 (@DefenceOps) October 21, 2026
FGS Berlin is the lead ship of the German Navy’s Berlin class replenishment vessels and was serving as flagship of Standing NATO Maritime Group One, the alliance’s permanent naval force in northern European waters, which is currently under French command.
The boarding was carried out by personnel from K Company, 42 Commando, the Royal Marines unit that specialises in maritime interdiction. One team went up the ship’s side from a rigid inflatable boat using caving ladders, a physically demanding method in strong winds but one that preserves surprise, while another fast-roped onto the deck from a Merlin of 824 Naval Air Squadron, which is quicker but noisier.
Once aboard, the teams cleared the ship compartment by compartment carrying short-barrelled L119A1 rifles, prioritising the bridge and control rooms. A simulated casualty allowed commando and Royal Navy personnel to rehearse evacuating a wounded man from inside a ship.
Exercise Strike Warrior ran from 28 September to 9 October and involved more than two thousand personnel, eight warships and nineteen aircraft across Cape Wrath, the Western Isles, the North-West Approaches, Galloway, the Borders and the North Sea. The Royal Navy describes it as the largest test of the United Kingdom Commando Force in fifteen years, and the first time since the war in Afghanistan that all of its specialist elements have trained together.
The exercise rehearses allied crisis-response operations in the High North and the North Atlantic. Alongside Britain it drew in forces from the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Norway and the United States, with the Portuguese frigate NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida, the Dutch frigate HNLMS Van Amstel and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS St John’s taking part.
Elsewhere in the exercise, soldiers of 148 (Meiktila) Commando Forward Observation Battery were carried to the Scottish coast aboard the German submarine U36, a Type 212A boat, before going ashore near Cape Wrath to direct naval gunfire from Portuguese, Dutch and Canadian warships onto simulated targets.
This publication reported when NATO warships arrived in Glasgow ahead of Strike Warrior and when Merlin helicopters headed to Scotland to protect the submarine force.
