Canadian, Danish, Dutch, Polish, German, Norwegian and French warships faced off against HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike group as part of an exercise.
Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) ships HDMS Absalon and HMCS Halifax were joined by HNLMS Van Amstel, ORP Generał. K. Pułaski, FGS Spessart, HDMS Hvidbjørnen and FS Bretagne, under the command of Commodore Bradley Peats. Task Group simulated a belligerent naval adversary for the UK CSG according to the fictional Strike Warrior exercise scenario.
Joint Warrior, known this year as Strike Warrior, is UK-led multinational exercise held twice a year in the waters around the United Kingdom and is designed to exercise a wide range of high-readiness warfighting capabilities across land, sea and air units in coordinated joint operations. The Royal Navys ay that the exercise “provides realistic multi-threat scenarios within a safe operating environment into which NATO Allies and partner nations formations, units and staffs can deploy and undertake collective training in preparation for any upcoming joint deployments”.
SNMG1 and its consorts began the exercise with a brief Combat Enhancement/Force Integration Training programme in the waters off Northwest Scotland known as the Minch. This phase ensured that participating units were fully integrated into the task group and ready to conduct various high-intensity operations and assume specific roles/responsibilities as part of the exercise.
Following this phase, NATO say that the Group entered the free-play phase where units reacted to unscripted events as they happened and interacted with the UK CSG opposition forces in a variety of realistic operational scenarios.
“SNMG1 is proud to have played a vital role in enhancing mutual operational readiness and interoperability with our fellow NATO Allies and partners, especially the UK CSG,” said Commodore Bradley Peats, Commander of SNMG1.
“Large multinational training exercises like Joint Warrior improve NATO’s overall defence capabilities while enhancing its responsiveness to deploy high-readiness military forces to conduct coordinated joint operations against various current and future threats, which supports the NATO Readiness Initiative.”
Beats a wolfpack of P2000’s as an Opfor doesn’t it?
Certainly does. Wonder if subs were involved?
If I remember correctly there was a report on here a few days ago of a Wildcat performing an at-sea replenishment with an Astute class sub in the same area, so quite likely.
They came on at Half Time. 😎
Boom boom
I wonder if the nuclear subs “warmed up” before coming on?
God in heaven, mary, josef, jesus and the wee donkey, did you have to?
😉
CSG really testing them selfs good show 💪
They are really putting the CSG through the wringer. It looks like a good work up. I wonder how they faired.
I would love to know that too. Also in the simulated Harrier attack against CSG by US marines I wonder how many harriers survived the type 45 defensive screen or the F35B CAP ventured onto them by Merlins with crowsnest.
I would have thought all those harriers would have had a really bad day. Outclassed.
I think in similar exercise with a US carrier group a Swedish sub, HSMS Gotland, was able to make a number of attack runs on the US carrier completely undetected. Had it be for real the carrier would have been lost.
If the Gotland had actually launched a Torpedo though, I guess things might have been different, not sure how many hits would be required for the carrier to be actually lost but you can bet the USN learned a big lesson either way.
Yep. And that was many years ago. A lot of new anti-sub tech on the ships/aircraft/helos now.
It wasn’t to long ago less than 5 year’s
Chinese sub popped up in the middle of a US SG to say hello a few years back. Another big learning opportunity. Not heard of it happening since. If they try it with our GSG we’ll know if they succeed, but not if they’re sent packing I suppose.
On the other hand, perhaps they let the sub surface by keeping their abilities secret.
I would bet a salvo of topedos would be fired by an attacking sub. At best its a protracted session in dry Dock.
I wouldnt be so sure. Ever read about USS America’s sinkex? When the US navy deliberately tried to sink a 70,000 ton carrier to see how much punishment the ship could take. After days of continuous attacks from air, surface and subsurface the result was that the ship wouldnt sink. The USN demolition experts had to go onboard. Open all valves. Open all blast doors and bulkheads and water tight doors and set demolition charges. Carriers are tough ships.
Anyone remember the oil tanker Torrey Canyon years ago (no, you are all too young, I’m sure)? Anyway, it ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, in 1967 and began to spill millions of gallons of oil onto the Cornish coast. The government of the day decided to blow it up and set fire to the oil, so called in RAF and FAA jets, which spent tow days bombing the vessel, to little effect. To quote Wiki… “The RAF and the Royal Navy were (also) subject to ridicule as a result of their efforts to assist in resolving the matter,… Read more »
Bum, Just read your post mate ! Exactly, it was a bit of a disaster in more ways than one.
Interesting.
I was not born yet. And yes had never heard of this!
Absolutely mate…. Also, take a look at the attempts to destroy the “Torrey Canyon” by Hunters and Buccaneers and Sea Vixens…. 🤔
OK you could say it would survive. But assuming the attack sub would launch a salvo of torpedoes its not going to be a happy day on board the career followed by a return to Port and a lengthy dry docking.
I always assume that an Akula’s around somwhere testing its luck. Be nice to think so, and that we knew whereabouts. Now that’s an exercise result.
You might like this photo of QE and PoW of Scotland, George it does have a Crown Copy Right so check to make sure I’m ok.
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/1a01rENtgINV0zfCF4qJ.g–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU5OS45NTIwMTkxOTIzMjMx/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/sUKdpULAHXUSY61CgNus8Q–~B/aD0xNTYzO3c9MjUwMTthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_telegraph_818/b008c5ac9fdf3781279c30c6ab9f1f52
Wouldnt worry there are a whole stream of photos on Twitter. Great to see. Definitely in the public domain and wonderful sight.
Dont forget the Russian shadowing ship
So who is deemed to have been sunk?
There is a full set of photographs of the aircraft carriers and other ships on the offical Royal Navy website in the latest news section.Also a report on the government MOD website.