Four Merlin Mk2 submarine hunters and around ninety sailors moved at short notice from Cornwall to Prestwick to work over the approaches to the Clyde, tracking a new attack submarine on her dive trials and screening the waters around Britain’s submarine base, according to the Royal Navy.
The deployment, run under the name Operation Iceblast, took crews and aircraft from 824 and 814 Naval Air Squadrons out of Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose and set them up at HMS Gannet for a fortnight of operations.
Captain James Hall, the commanding officer at Culdrose, said: “Operation Iceblast demonstrated exactly what Culdrose and Merlin Helicopter Force are designed to do. That is to deploy at short notice and deliver warfighting readiness from a forward location with a world-class anti-submarine warfare capability, whenever and wherever it is required.”
The crews oversaw the arrival of HMS Agamemnon, the newest Astute class boat, into His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, then used their dipping sonar to track her while she carried out dive trials. Hunting a friendly submarine of the latest type is about as demanding a target as a Merlin crew will get.
Alongside that, the detachment worked with NATO partners including Norwegian and German forces during Exercise Strike Warrior, the large workout for the UK Commando Force that has just finished in Scotland. That included standing search and rescue watch while Royal Marines practised boarding operations with the German supply ship FGS Berlin. Further sorties went into monitoring strategic areas of the North Atlantic.
A drone team from Culdrose’s 700X Naval Air Squadron worked in parallel, providing additional security around the Clyde to protect the submarine force.
Captain Hall said: “This exercise tested our ability to operate across multiple sites simultaneously. Together, these activities demonstrated the agility, readiness and professionalism of our personnel.
“The strategic environment demands constant vigilance. Operational deployments such as Iceblast ensure that our people, aircraft and support teams remain ready to protect the UK’s interests, contribute to NATO security alongside our Norwegian partners, and provide the capabilities required to support the nation’s nuclear deterrent.”
He said the exercise was built to test whether the air station could deploy and sustain anti-submarine warfare operations away from its home base near Helston, and that working from Gannet gave a realistic rehearsal of dispersed operations with the logistics and command and control complications that come with them. Lessons from the fortnight will be folded into future procedures and training.
Good job!!
OT but RN related.
VERY interesting article on Navy Lookout about a Project Talon and a possible new anto drone interceptor now present on HMS Dauntless.
Good stuff if so, what about the rest of the fleet?
Seems like basing a ASW Helicopter force at Prestwick again would be a sensible idea.
They should never have left. At least the facility still exists.
OT, but SSBN and deterrent related. I see that the LFFB Aerostat, long operated by the Army Reserve’s No 2 Signal Sqn and a unit I have long been interested in, as it was once a part of No 2 Signal Brigade which had Home Defence and post nuclear comms roles, was destroyed over Topcliffe last week during its annual exercise. The MoD are not saying if an accident or any grey zone sabotage.