The biggest military exercise in the UK has started as more than 11,000 sailors, soldiers and aircrew wage a 12-day ‘war’ around the British Isles.

The Ministry of Defence say that from Cape Wrath and the Hebrides to the North Sea and Channel, naval forces from across NATO will grapple with attacks from above, on and below the waves during Joint Warrior, Britain’s long-standing test of it – and international – military by land, sea and air.

“More than 20 ships and a handful of submarines, led by seven Royal Navy warships, including destroyer HMS Diamond and three frigates (Kent, Northumberland and Somerset), plus a couple of Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers are participating. They are joined by vessels from the US, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, France and Latvia.

More than 30 aircraft, including RAF Typhoon fighters and long-range maritime patrol aircraft will be committed, as well as drone technology and exercise planners intend to use ‘virtual’ aerial assets alongside live ones to test the response of participants. Anti-submarine ships, aircraft and helicopters will hunt down live submarines, while land forces dealing with foes will include the gunners of 29 Commando Royal and elements of the US Marine Corps.”

“Exercise Joint Warrior is a fantastic opportunity to fully demonstrate HMS Kent’s wide-ranging capabilities in close consort with other Royal Navy units, ground units, air assets and multinational forces,” said the Commanding Officer of the Portsmouth-based frigate, Commander Jez Brettell.

“Having recently proven ourselves at Operational Sea Training, the exercise is ideally timed to consolidate our training at the very start of our deployment so that we are ready for anything that may follow.”

Joint Warrior is typically run from Clyde Naval Base, with the action mostly focused in north-west Scotland and adjacent waters. This latest exercise, however, casts its net across the British Isles. Naval task groups will face each other down in both the North Sea off the coast of Scotland and the north-east coast of England, then again in the western Channel off Cornwall and Devon.

You can read more here.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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19 COMMENTS

  1. Hmmm…just my perception/fevered imagination, or are training cycles becoming slightly more frequent and realistic–couldn’t possibly think of a reason why….🤔😳😉

      • Understood, however, up tempo and more realistic exercise(s) is(are) partially intended to benefit the training of blue forces and partially to send a signal to red force(s).

        • The pace and scale of international ‘blue force’ exercises hosted by Australia has also increased.
           
          The RANs Exercise Kakadu 22 has just concluded with 15 ships and submarines from Australia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, USA and a forward deployed River Class OPV from the UK.

          Kakadu 22 featured over 30 aircraft including Singaporean F15s, F16s and AWACS alongside RAAF F35s and P8 Poseidons with, for the first time, Luftwaffe Typhoons. Approximately 3,000 personnel from more than 20 countries participated.
           
          This closely follow’s RAAF’s Exercise Pitch Black 2022 which officially wrapped up on 8 September. Pitch Black features sophisticated air to air combat scenarios and air to ground threats modelled on the USAF’s Red Flag with an unrestricted airspace that rivals that offered in Nevada.
           
          Approximately 2,500 military personnel from 17 nations (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, the UK and the USA) and 100 aircraft took part. Combat aircraft from Germany, Japan and the Republic of Korea participated for the first time.
           
          Currently underway is the ADF’s Indo-Pacific Endeavour (IPE), a two-month tour of 14 countries across South-East Asia and the Northeast Indian Ocean (Maldives, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia).
           
          Five ships will take part LHD HMAS Adelaide, AWD HMAS Hobart Anzac Class frigates HMA ships Anzac and Arunta and AOR HMAS Stalwart), along with 11 helicopters, and 1,800 personnel from 2 RAR, RAAF and RAN.

          • Thanks for the update OZ. Defense of Indo-Pacific critically important Must not ignore any aggression the ChiComs may be planning to commit, while the world’s attention is focused elsewhere.

    • I live near Teesside Airport where the Draken training aircraft are based, they have been more active over the last 12 months than I’ve ever seen (heard) them.

      • Imagine that RAF could be capable of issuing a directive to increase tempo of training whilst simultaneously not unduly alarming the public. Might have observed similar activities from 1937-1939. Pure speculation in my part…

  2. QE in New York. LRG (N) in Med plus Joint Warrior. Not bad for UK defence. Hope others around the world (no names no packdrill) are paying attention.

    • They have quite a decent level of armaments too and support Polish Merlin’s. Shows potential of the design. 3-4 of these in the RN might useful to bolster the fleet. It’ll be interesting to see what the T32 eventually looks like in comparison if it’s going to be more General Purpose.

      • Polish Navy is focused on Baltic operations so endurance is much less of a priority for them than it is for UK. That frees up a lot of weight and internal volume for crew, sensors and weapons. That’s why they will be comparatively more heavily armed.

  4. Nice video from the drone George. The polish frigate has a strange set up with the gun in the middle and what I think is a one arm launcher up front.
    I haven’t looked up yet to see if the ship is one of the Perry class.
    The mine warfare ship looks really small beside it but It does a very important job.
    A good few weeks of fun for all involved coming up.

    • Yup, they’re Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates…

      The Arrowhead class will likely be quite a step up for the Polish Navy.

      Cheers CR

      • I hope the arrow head works well for them and is as good or better than what they have just now.
        Was the Perry class built as long hull and short hull versions? I could be getting muddled up with some other class

        • I’m not aware of them being built in different length hull forms, but it would not be that unsual for a class to be produced in different versions as experience develops with them in service.

          The RN’s Type 12 series of frigates developed through the original Whitby class followed by the Type 12M (Modified) Rothesay Class and finally the famous Type 12I (Improved) Leander Class which itself was produced the standard and broad beamed variants.

          The Durch version of the Leander Class was sold to Indonessian Navy and 5 are still in service at over 50 years in service. Just goes to prove that a good design can keep going for quite some time.

          The Perry’s are in a similar bracket…

          Cheers CR

  5. Reading all these comments I find it very interesting, you all seem to be very clued up on a wide range of subjects, I found the Bombing of the yank carrier very interesting. Keep it up. I mean it.

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