NATO warships and mine countermeasure forces are taking part in Exercise Northern Viking 26 around Iceland, rehearsing the defence of the country and the strategically important sea routes running through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap.
The U.S.-led exercise brings together forces from Iceland and NATO Allies including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Norway and Poland. NATO Maritime Command said the activity combines air and maritime forces in a joint operational scenario, with particular attention on protecting critical infrastructure and maintaining access through the North Atlantic. Northern Viking 26 also forms part of NATO’s wider Arctic Sentry activity in the High North.
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One, currently under Lithuanian command, is participating with minehunters from Canada, Germany, Lithuania and Poland, supported by a Danish mine countermeasures team and a Portuguese explosive ordnance disposal team. The group is training alongside Standing NATO Maritime Group One and other Allied forces, bringing surface, subsurface and mine countermeasure activity together during the exercise.
Commander Donatas Gečas of the Lithuanian Navy, Commander of Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One, said: “Exercises such as Northern Viking demonstrate the value of bringing together Allied mine countermeasures forces with other maritime and joint capabilities. By training together in a demanding operational environment, we strengthen interoperability, share operational experience and improve our readiness to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic.”
Mine countermeasure forces are being used during Northern Viking to practise maintaining freedom of movement through strategically important waters and protecting maritime routes against mine threats. NATO said the North Atlantic and High North provide a demanding environment in which participating ships can practise these tasks while operating alongside wider naval and air forces.
The exercise is centred partly on the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap, commonly known as the GIUK Gap, which comprises the waters between Greenland and Iceland and between Iceland and the United Kingdom. The corridor connects the North Atlantic approaches to northern European waters and forms one of the principal maritime routes between North America and Europe.
Standing NATO Maritime Group One is also operating in the exercise, with the two standing task groups conducting multinational training intended to improve coordination across surface, subsurface and mine warfare activity. NATO said the exercise allows participating forces to develop familiarity with the environmental and operational conditions encountered around Iceland and across the wider North Atlantic.
Exercise Northern Viking integrates forces from the United States and Iceland with other NATO Allies in a live training environment. The activity covers planning and execution of joint multinational operations while testing how naval, air and specialist mine warfare units work together when defending maritime approaches and infrastructure.
OT.
RAF Air Command rebranded to “Air and Space Command.”
Despite this, Space Command itself will continue to be a Command within a Command.
The RAF state this is done to reflect the RAF as lead service for the domain, yet acknowledge that Space Command itself is a tri service organisation.
The rebranding mafia strike again, I’m looking forward to seeing all the extra assets, people and installations that this change will result in, and the questions for Russia and China it’ll pose?
I won’t hold my breath….beyond the drip feed of ISTARI small sats, Noctis 1, and some unspecified self defence capability of Skynet, what is there?
Any actual ASAT capabilty? No.
If there was a world table of rebranding we’d be world beaters, what actual difference does any of it make to the front line?
Maybe the HOCDSC can ask the CAS?
Indeed laughable, while France, Italy, Germany and even Spain invest in space launch technology so they aren’t reliant on Musk, we have allowed our own most advanced effort to be luiquidated, while beyond what we already excel in mucous satellites, mostly controlled by Airbus is allowed to do its own thing for the most part. It’s a name to merely impress the plebs, branding the only area of investment, with little to no real substance sadly as things stand, or even a plan. I guess if we are lucky we might watch a few take off from Shetland but I am not even certain how long that will last with the present attitude, dominos tend to play a role in such matters.
Defend Iceland from who mind. A US led force might only be giving them the experience to carry out an eventual invasion. I know that sounds fanciful but Christ I have just seen the demands that the US made to Canada at the end of the trade talks. It would have effectively made Canada a colony, a state in all but name but as it would have few rights thst status lends, it is clearly designed with the intention of making the only other option to actually become one. Trump ‘may’ not be around to carry this thinking out but I fear in the future we will all be targeted in this way and Iceland would be in the front line for such tactics sadly. As cynical as I have been my, and indeed most of Trump’s sternest critics didn’t foresee just how scarily imperialist and brutal the regime desires to be in their new world order. The oligarchs are increasing their direct control over central Govt and the World they plan has room only beyond the elite, for Ai and robotics, humans are of no real intrinsic value to them except perhaps as slave labour, let alone human rights.