NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) concluded its two-week anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare exercise, Dynamic Mongoose 24, in Reykjavik, Iceland, on May 10, according to a press release.
Led by Commander, Submarines NATO (COMSUBNATO) in Northwood and hosted by Norway, the annual exercise brought together Allied ships, submarines, and aircraft in the challenging waters of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK)-Norway Gap.
Participating units hailed from Canada, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
This year marked a significant milestone with Sweden participating for the first time as a full NATO member nation since its accession on March 7. Sweden contributed one of its advanced Gotland-class submarines. Sweden last took part in Dynamic Mongoose in 2015 as a NATO partner nation.
“Dynamic Mongoose 24 has underscored the incredible strength of our collective capability particularly in the undersea domain,” said U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Wall, COMSUBNATO, in the press release.
“We’ve been collaborating with Sweden for many years so the interoperability was already there and this exercise proved that. The Swedish submarine force is well versed in shallow-water operations, so their addition to our force composition firmly enhances NATO’s collective defence in the region.”
As the units made their way to Iceland, MARCOM’s exercise control team presented a series of progressively complex challenges, including tactical communication tasks from the seabed to space, manoeuvring drills, and shallow-water operations near the Faroe Islands.
Submarines from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United States participated, with crews rotating roles as hunters and targets to maximize training opportunities and improve interoperability and understanding among all crews involved.
Hope Sergei the meercat was on his best behaviour on red team. No, I don’t have any mongoose content.
Pretty obvious why the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK)-Norway Gap is the exercise area of choice. Judging from the dry docking in Sevastopol harbor the operational readiness of the terrorist state may not be much, and not what the Crimlin believes it should be. Still, best to be ready with our friends.