British aircraft carrier joins sub-hunt off Norway

The northern approaches to the Atlantic are more secure after a two-week NATO anti-submarine exercise off the west coast of Norway that drew in hundreds of Royal Navy and RAF personnel and was bolstered by the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and her group, the Royal Navy has said.

Three ships and aircraft from four squadrons made up the United Kingdom’s contribution to Dynamic Mongoose 2026, the largest individual national input to the exercise, which has now completed. Shared between hosts Iceland and Norway, with Norway leading this year, the exercise drew in six NATO nations committing both personnel and hardware for the game of cat-and-mouse that submarines and surface forces have contested for over a century.

Beneath the waves were a German U-boat and submarines from Portugal and the Netherlands, while above them operated six warships and an auxiliary of NATO’s Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, reinforced by the Prince of Wales carrier group. The standing group, currently commanded by the Royal Navy under Commodore Maryla Ingham aboard the German frigate FGS Sachsen, led the hunt, assisted by Merlin helicopters flying from the carrier’s flight deck and by RAF P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from CXX Squadron sweeping suspected submarine routes with sonobuoys.

The involvement of the destroyer HMS Duncan and the carrier brought extra air power into the mix this year, the Royal Navy said, with not only Merlin Mk2s for submarine hunting but Wildcats from 815 Naval Air Squadron providing force protection with their Martlet and Sea Venom missiles. Exercise directors also committed drones and autonomous systems to the effort, with the results of the various serials to be studied by NATO experts and the lessons folded into the alliance’s new Arctic Sentry mission, introduced in February to step up vigilance in the High North, the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic in view of Russia’s increased activity in the region.

Commodore Ingham said the exercise had been a real success for all involved, both individually and collectively. “We proved the successful integration of advanced capabilities and technologies,” she said, as well as refining tactics during an increasingly complex series of exercises against live submarines. Dynamic Mongoose, she said, had provided “first-class training” for the crews of maritime patrol aircraft, anti-submarine helicopters, ships and the submarines themselves, and the integration of nine different nations across the force had shown an ability to work together “seamlessly.” The area in which the exercise took place, she added, “is of strategic importance for the Alliance and training here helps us understand the environment.”

The carrier’s commander, Commodore Rich Hewitt, said Dynamic Mongoose had been “a great opportunity to fully immerse the Carrier Strike Group with our tailored air wing into NATO’s premier anti-submarine warfighting exercise.” The group was constantly developing its warfighting readiness alongside NATO allies, he said, and anti-submarine warfare was “a critical part of defending NATO’s Northern Flank.”

Dynamic Mongoose is one of two NATO exercises focused on anti-submarine warfare, testing forces in very different waters, with the Dynamic Manta series held in the Mediterranean, where depth, salinity and temperature all play differently for hunter and hunted. The exercise comes as the High North draws ever greater allied attention, with Russian submarine activity in the Norwegian Sea and the wider North Atlantic having climbed in recent years and NATO standing up Arctic Sentry under the leadership of the United Kingdom.