F-35s from HMS Prince of Wales have conducted a live land strike alongside the Norwegian Army during NATO’s Exercise Neptune Strike, with a Wildcat from HMS Dauntless carrying out a maritime strike with Norwegian forces, according to the UK Carrier Strike Group.
The group said on X: “Operating with @NATO during Neptune Strike, UK CSG delivers strike capability to the High North.” It added that “@HMSPWLS’ F35s conducted a live land strike alongside @NorwegianArmy” and that “@HMSDauntless’ Wildcat helicopter carried out maritime strike with @Forsvaret_no”, tagging the post with NATO’s Arctic Sentry activity.
https://x.com/COMUKCSG/status/2118037816659816523
Exercise Neptune Strike is run by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO and takes place in several iterations a year.
Its July iteration was the first to extend into the High North and North Atlantic, as part of Arctic Sentry, with HMS Prince of Wales leading a multinational force under NATO command and F-35Bs of 809 Naval Air Squadron flying sorties as far as Poland.
The carrier returned to Portsmouth in July at the end of the first phase of Operation Firecrest, the group’s 2026 Arctic and North Atlantic deployment, with the mission due to resume in northern European waters in the autumn.
During that first phase, the group flew NATO’s Air Policing mission over Iceland and the Arctic, the first time it had been carried out by aircraft launched from a European carrier’s deck. Navy Lookout reported in July that Prince of Wales had embarked eight F-35Bs at that stage, and that the next stage includes hosting the Atlantic Future Forum in Oslo this month.
What’s the bloody point in having carriers in the high north, they won’t be any use to NATO forces fighting on land 😂