In Taranto, Royal Navy Commodore Paul Stroude handed over command of Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) to Italian Navy Rear Admiral Pasquale Esposito.
Chief of Staff Allied Maritime Command Spanish Navy Rear Admiral Jose Enrique Delgado presided over the change of command ceremony onboard the outgoing flagship Royal Navy HMS Duncan (D37).
According to a NATO press release:
“During the more than five months of Stroude’s tenure in command, the Task Group remained focused on its role as part of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Maritime), which was activated in response to Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Operating predominantly in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and with international tensions still high, SNMG2’s activities were characterized by maintaining ceaseless vigilance, presence and readiness, to reassure regional Allies, deter adversaries and, if necessary, defend NATO territorial integrity.”
“This Change of Command is a profound reaffirmation of the bond and cohesion that exists amongst NATO member states. That in our collective strength lies the guarantee of peace and stability for our nations,” said MARCOM Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Jose Enrique Delgado, Spanish Navy.
“Operating predominantly in Central and Eastern Mediterranean Sea, throughout its tour, the SNMG2 remained at constant readiness, contributing to NATO’s deterrence and assurance, and providing NATO Allies and Partners with full maritime situational awareness.”
Since Stroude assumed command of SNMG2 in June from the United States, a total of 19 different ships contributed directly to the Task Group from nine different NATO nations: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.
I am glad that we succesfully commanded the Task Group which ‘remained focused on its role as part of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Maritime)’ and committed appropriate national maritime assets.
Some seem to doubt that we can properly contribute to VJTF these days.
Feel our Navy is our strongest asset. It’s the land army I’d be worried about, with Scimitar already retired and both Ajax / Boxer not ready yet.
Recce: Scimitar has temporarily been replaced by Warrior in a recce role until Ajax comes into service. [Not sure that was the cleverest idea]
Infantry carriage: Warrior IFV is still in service as Boxer is not in service.
It’s not that we don’t have armoured recce vehicles and armoured infantry carriers at the moment.
Is there any confirmed date for Ajax to enter service? I saw it was taking part in the recent exercise on Salisbury Plain.
From army-technology.com report of 21/3/23:
“The Ajax fleet is now expected to achieve IOC between July and December 2025 and FOC between October 2028 and September 2029”.
I have not seen the definition of IOC for this programme.
Some vehs have been issued to HCR and 6 Bn REME (obvs REME variants) – for the army to gain some experience and to provide feedback. We used to call this Troop Trials, although it may be a part of Reliability Growth Trials which are still in progress for a number of months. Vehicles might have to undergo modifications if any are deemed necessary by comments from such activity.
It seems like the Warriors are very overworked at present. With doing the Recce role too.
I wonder if the Bulldogs will be given to Ukraine, as they must be coming to the end of their operational life.
I believe the Scimitars were taken out of service in Mar/Apr 2023. Some Warriors were fed into the recce role as an interim measure. Not sure if or how they have been physically reconfigured, but I assume some changes have been made. RAC have been training to use them. That has taken time, so I doubt recce Warriors are yet being used hard.
Bulldog is of course an upgraded, uparmoured, life-extended FV432 (ie a FV432 Mk3), 432s being first fielded from about 1962/3. The base vehicle is therefore seriously old (up to 60 years old!).
Bulldog came into service from Dec 2006, itself quite a few years ago.
It would make more sense to gift Ukraine some of the older FV432s, ie the Mk2s – and keep all the Mk3 Bulldogs for the BA until Boxer arrives as its replacement.