British and Norwegian forces have teamed up for a high-stakes training exercise in the fjords, focusing on hunting fast-attack craft and refining their missile systems.
Exercise Tamber Shield, part of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force initiative, saw the Royal Navy and their Norwegian hosts converge on the confined waters around Bergen.
The exercise was designed to develop tactics for fending off fast attack craft threatening individual ships or task groups in the future. Wildcat helicopters from 815 Naval Air Squadron and stealthy Norwegian missile craft were among the key players in the fortnight-long workout.
New Missile Systems Tested
The aim of the exercise was to test and refine the tactics of the potent new Martlet and heavier, longer-range Sea Venom missiles. The challenging and unfamiliar terrain provided an excellent opportunity for enhancing the firepower delivered by the maritime strike squadron. Operating in the Norwegian’s ‘backyard’ allowed the Wildcat fliers to learn from their hosts and develop an understanding of communication, tactics, and seamless integration.
“Undertaking high end warfighting exercises with JEF partners not only improves our operational capability, it also allows us to exploit each other’s strengths,” said Lieutenant Commander Sammy Haynes, Senior Observer of 815 Naval Air Squadron and Detachment Commander for the exercise.
Innovative Tactics Practised
Among the more interesting tactics practised was the Wildcats acting as scouts for the Norwegian corvettes, providing crucial targeting information while the fast boat itself remained undetected by the enemy.
Commodore Trond Gimmingsrud, Chief of the Norwegian Naval Fleet, praised the exercise for its benefits, stating “During Exercise Tamber Shield, we have been able to improve our ability to work together as well as strengthening the relations with a key ally.” He also believes that the exercise has strengthened the Royal Navy’s ability to operate inshore and in waters around the UK, contributing to Northern European stability.
The exercise clocked up over 200 flying hours, providing immersive and realistic training that significantly developed the Wildcat’s ability to hunt down and ‘kill’ fast patrol boats hiding in the jagged coastline.
Excellent! If Wildcat can work in the Norwegian fjords the Gulf should be no problem. A GP T23 or T31 with Wildcat. Seaspray, Martlet, Sea Venom and .50 cal will command those waters.
There’s a very good post @NavyLookout covering this. LINK Sweeden is also upping its game with missile defence, Putin has made a very big error in judgement by invading Ukraine. Ukraine conflict: Sweden fires RBS 23 SAM from Gotland “The Swedish Armed Forces announced on 25 April that they had fired an RBS 23 medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) at the Tofta firing range on Gotland the day before, strengthening the defence of the Baltic island and contributing to building up its anti-aircraft capabilities. The missile was fired by an RBS 23 towed launcher and shot down a target drone detected… Read more »
Yes, thx. Interesting article.
Sea spray for surface search. If you want to remain undetected on enemy ESM use the EOS in the nose. It can see and ID targets at a really ridiculous range. Tie that into Venom (that doesnt require radar) and the first thing you know is you are getting hit
Yes of course. Thanks as always 🙂
The reservations I have with the Wildcat/Marlet combination are:
1) Surely the Wildcat is vulnerable to being shot down?
2) Can it operate in all weather?
3) What’s the back-up plan against fast attack craft swarms if the Wildcat can’t take off for whatever reason (mechanical, etc)?
Just my thoughts.
1) So is anything else
2) Operational needs will determine that
3) What if this, what if that … what if the sky wasn’t blue … 🙄
Cheer up!🙂
don’t be an ass.
With MANPADS being as good as they are today all helicopters are vulnerable in the battlespace. And having Wildcat is better than no helicopters at all. Lastly the FAC will be careful with them as we dont have that many
You fire from below the radar horizon so MANPAD / EO / RADAR isn’t an issue.
The VENOM just needs to know roughly where to go it then does the rest itself.
What most people forget is that the earth is not flat…in navel warfare when something is bellow the radar horizon you’re blind ( unless you have something parked up high with a radar looking down)…sea viper can fire further than the radar horizon…pop up look at a safe distance….pop low move in fire..pop low and run away… as for back up the T31 has a weapon set up designed to combat boat swarms….and any CAMM armed escort is going to be very effective against boat swarms..a Mach three 100kg missile that is independent of fire control radar illumination is very… Read more »
I am sure current systems can do what sea skimming missiles do and start searching while in air.
Do you mean air defence missiles?
I assume you mean air defence missiles….Simply put if the ship has no idea where the rotor is it’s cannot fire a missile at it even if it’s active Homer. It’s how air assets have attacked ships with missiles for a long time…a classic example is the attacks on the British fleet by Argentinian Entendards, the fleet was unable to detect the low flying aircraft until they popped up to identify and shoot…only having very limited electro magnetic emissions as a warning something was happening before that. Simply put the air asset can detect the fleet outside of engagement range…the… Read more »
Not to mention the BAE 56mm and Bofors 40mms with programmable ammo. The 3 gun mounts on a type 31 can lay do a ridiculous amount of firepower.
Hi Mr Bell, yes that it what I meant, most people don’t seem to appreciate that the Gun armament of the type 31 makes it probably the best escort you could get for enclosed waters and crowded sea lanes…the Navy actual gave all the bidders the ability to come up with the best option for laying down specific levels of effects at specific ranges and the t31 gun and CAMM armament came out as the best and most effective for what the Navy was looking for…it was not the cheapest as most people assume…although the specific scenarios that the navy… Read more »
Mr Bell, please note.. It’s a 56 + 1= 57mm ..lol 😁 What’s with “56”?…Was it a good year or wine?
I see a couple of people have already responded, but refer to Sea Venom rather than Martlet- which was your question. MANPADS have a range of approx. 8 km, which is the given range for Martlet- although that’ll depend on launching altitude and speed whereas a MANPAD is always going to be 8 km. The intended targets for Martlet aren’t going to have any SAM bigger than that, but even if something had a Pantsir or similar strapped down to the deck, the range isn’t much more. Wildcat’s EOTS can also see much further than the range of the missile,… Read more »
Pantsir missile weight 76kg, CAMM weight 90kg. Not out of question that a Pantsir can range say 15-20km.
It’s a fair point, and not out of the question, no. I’ll admit, I just took the first answer off Google.
But whether it could do that when strapped onto the deck of a small vessel is a bigger question- there can be quite a bit of yaw and pitch on the deck whether underway or not, which will definitely affect target acquisition and launch in quite a significant manner.
They’re made more vulnerable by the fact that Martlet isn’t fire and forget so the helicopter has to paint the target for the missile to hit it. A fire and forget missile like Hellfire allows the helicopter to move out of SAM range or below the horizon after launch. Fire and forget missiles can also engage multiple targets simultaneously whereas Martlet can’t. Sea Venom looks okay but Martlet looks like a very poor anti-swarm missile because it isn’t fire and forget.
Hi Steve,
I wonder if Brimstone would be a better option. Not sure if it’s fire and forget but there is video on YouTube where it takes out three fast attack craft very efficiently.
Using CAMM (in lieu of a helicopter borne option) seems a very expensive alternative and overkill if you ask me.
Think we are going round in circles here Martlet is deliberately a relatively simple and ‘cheap’ solution to use against low threat targets for the most part if you want something more complex for a more complex target and scenario then Camm, Sea Venom or naval Brimstone which will be fire and forget can take on multiple targets but as a result are a lot more complex and expensive. Can’t really have it both ways. You pick the best solution for the job. It’s why the US is using unguided rockets (with or without added gps guidance kits) are still… Read more »
I’m not sure why a swarm of Martlets can’t engage multiple targets. Surely it would be possible for a single laser source to target multiple points through time sharing, or even for multiple lasers to be fixed on the weapon wing.
My understanding is that the target for the Wildcat / Martlet combo are fast attack craft – an unstable platform at speed – whose AA defence is likely to be a gpmg or an unstabilised 20mm cannon; possibly a manpad which would have a maximum range of around 5 miles. I think Martlet is designed to enable the Wildcat to launch an attack beyond the range of these defences. The target for the Wildcat / Sea Venom combo are larger corvette type vessels which might have AA missile defences with a range of the order of 15 miles e.g. Aster… Read more »
A related concern is the Martlet’s range of around 8km (?). Like to see that doubled for increased safety.
And in the absence of Wildcats can the Merlin’s also carry Martlet’s and Venom’s? It could be a useful addition to their torpedos.
Also like to see the UK offer Martlet/Venom kits onto other helicopters too.
Joe 16 below has also mentioned about the 8km range.
Wildcat /Martlett is only one layer in many layers of Swarm Boat force protection. For a T23 /45 Up revs and Manoeuvre hard producing lots of chop to slow or flip a swarm boat, Medium Range Guns firing VT High/Low proximity shells, 30mm, 50 cal, 7.62 minigun, GPMG every man an his dog on the upper deck with a rifle
If acting as scout for the Norwegian fast attack craft, does that mean that these Wildcats would have been fitted with a data link?
I wondered this. The timescales we’ve read about online would suggest that after the prototype link was tested at the end of last year the data links were being put in place over a few years. So unless there’s been a real hurry-up, I doubt it.
Information could have just been sent over a voice link.
Or by traditional naval semaphore.
Last I read was that the Army and NAvy were concluding trials on TDL last yaer before considering a purchase. Which does sound a bit odd considering we are supposed to be in a Netcentric world !
Perphaps they’ve been testing for who gets what. They were testing two links, Link16 and Bowman. Maybe they were wondering which they should go for in each service.
I’d say that the Army needs both, as the Bowman replacement hardware seem to be on hold. I haven’t heard anything official on Morpheus or even EVO in a long time. The Navy definitely needs Link16, and possibly Bowman too if they support litoral operations.
If both links work they would probably save time and money by treating all the Wildcats the same.
I do have to wonder about the timing of this bit of News and the emphasis on operating with the Norwegians in their home environment. Considering that we are getting very cosy with the Nordik countries of late I do wonder if this is a bit of a promo. Norway needs a replacement for their cancelled NH90’s and need them ASAP and they used the old Lynx for years. Oh the irony of that one ! Norway hasn’t only cancelled the order but are returning the few Cabs that were delivered and want a full refund. Pretty funny if NH… Read more »
Reported on Janes recently that Norway is buying MH60 Seahawks from the US
Regarding Wildcat vs MANPADS Its got an extensive ESM kit fitted. It will pick up a radar before the radar picks up the helo. It has an EOS in the nose that also does thermal imaging. It can pick up targets and ID them from many 10s of Km away, way beyond MANPADS range It carries IR Jammers The engine exhausts are orientated as such to lower the IR signature. It has Chaff and Flare Decoys. Venom is IIR homing so no radar required to light the target (unlike Sea Skua) or radar on the missile to be detected by… Read more »