Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) participated the semi-annual NATO exercise Dynamic Guard 22-2 in the Gulf of Taranto off the coast of Southern Italy last month.
NATO say here that Dynamic Guard 22-2 is an electronic warfare exercise that provides tactical training for the NATO Response Force and Allied national units.
“Its aim is to enable units assigned to the SNMGs to maintain required levels of proficiency in electronic warfare and anti-ship missile defence. Dynamic Guard is led by NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) and supported by the NATO Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff (JEWCS). It is held twice annually, with one serial in the North Atlantic area and one in the Mediterranean Sea.”
Several ships from SNMG2 took part in the exercise, including SNMG2’s flagship U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman, Spanish Navy guided-missile frigate ESPS Cristobal Colon and Italian Navy frigate ITS Alpino. Italian Navy replenishment oiler ITS Stromboli and Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Albion participated in the exercise as well.
According to a NATO release:
“As a NATO task group, SNMG2 prioritizes its mandate to enhance the collective readiness, responsiveness, deployable readiness, integration and interoperability of its forces. Its focus is on deterrence and defence against all adversaries in the maritime domain, upholding freedom of navigation, securing maritime trade routes and protecting the main lines of communication.
SNMG2 is a multinational integrated task group that projects a constant and visible reminder of the Alliance’s solidarity and cohesion afloat. This continuous maritime capability performs a wide range of tasks, including exercises and real-world operations in periods of crisis and conflict. SNMG2 is one of four Standing Naval Forces that operate under NATO Allied Maritime Command, headquartered in Northwood, United Kingdom.”
This is a little off topic. But really demonstrates the way forward and why T32 should go ahead and how we could transform T31 capabilities. SM-6 launched from a modular launcher off of USV Ranger.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1433852377870839808
It was part of a wider article and its not inconceivable that TLAMs could soon be in a container.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/first-land-based-tomahawk-and-sm-6-launcher-delivered-to-army
A much underrated and understood part of modern warfare. The most recent publicly announced use of EW by a Western Navy, was the attack on the USS Mason in 2016. The Mason, a Flight 2A, Arleigh Burke destroyer, which came under attack from Houthi shore based anti-ship missiles, of the C802 (Exocet copies) variety.
The ship was attacked over a 6 day period, off the coast of Yemen. The Mason used SM2, ESSM as well as using both active and passive countermeasures. The US Navy have not stated how well any of these systems performed, except to say none of the Houthis missiles hit the ship. Although they did say some of the missiles crashed into the sea. Which could be due to countermeasures jamming/spoofing the C802’s radar.
However, it does show that an attack on a ship can come anytime or anyplace. So it and the crew must be well practiced in how they respond. Exercises like Dynamic Guard play a very important part in developing how the ship and crew respond to threats. Especially when being tested by Chobham’s (Draken’s) electronic warfare jets.
These jets can mimic most anti-ship missile radars. But also pump out powerful RF jamming and spoofing. Trying make the exercise as real as possible. It’s a crying shame that the RAF does not have these aircraft or this capability. Imagine what Ukraine could do with a few of them?
Draken jets, Are those the Dasualt jets that fly out of Bournemouth Airport?
Yes, that’s one of their bases.
A great asset to have.
During exercises the onboard systems can mimic airborne search radars on Bombers/FGA. Its not just Russian/ Chinese radars either French and US radars can be simulated.
This allows the EW operators to make calls for threats building at distance and possible attack vectors.
After that the Falcons can barrel in using jamming, spoofing and also do pop up search acquisition radars ( 3 sweeps) and then simulate missile homing heads.
The OPS room team can carry out the SOPs ( ZIPPO) from search radar detection all the way to simulated soft kill decoy deployment, ship manoeuvring to simulated hard kill missile and gun engagements.
If you want and to keep everyone onboard busy you usually let a leaker through , simulate a hit and test damage control and weapon repair on top of the exercise as well.
I was down in Dorset 2 years back near Bovington there appeared to be a training exercise going on with lots of armour moving around the training range. One of the Falcons was circling around overhead I think you just explained why.
Monkey world and the tank museum were also good:)
They can do comms jamming and mess with GPS as well. Makes the LT lean to use a map along with rid and add rules on maps although with mag and true north being the same for a while map reading just got a shed load easier.
Very true! Just finished a RUSI report about the conflict in Ukraine, and they were very clear about how much of an impact EW has had.