Exercise Joint Warrior gathers at Faslane

(If you’re really looking for the news on the Autumn 2010 Joint Warrior 102 exercise, click here.)

The Spring 2010 Nato multinational military exercise, Joint Warrior, yesterday saw ships starting to come into the UK submarine base at Faslane in Argyll.

The exercise is scheduled for period from 10th-23rd April and will bring units of sea, air and land forces from participating nations – Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States – together for one of the biggest war games seen.

Maritime aircraft from France, Italy, New Zealand, the United States and Canada together with Falcon and Hawk aircraft are arriving at and will be flying from RAF Kinloss from Monday 12th April until Thursday 23rd April.

Included are 16 Air Assault Brigade and 21 surface and 5 sub-surface maritime units and 50 aircraft. Around 75 sorties per day will be flown across the UK.

Joint Warrior will also see the participation of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group, headed by HMS Ark Royal (pictured above). Aircraft will fly from varied locations throughout the UK, including RAF Lossiemouth.

These joint training exercises take place twice each year – in the Spring and in the Autumn. They rarely pass without incident. In 2008  a registered ‘earthquake’, felt as far inland as Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness, was later admitted to have been the Royal Navy playing with mines in The Minch. A few years before that,  residents living on the shores of Loch Erribol in Sutherland found themselves shelled from ships at sea whose range finding was imperfect, to say the least. Fortunately no one was killed.

This time the war game scenario sees the participating ships divided into units representing regions engaged in territorial disputes. This will involve the ships in small boat attacks, boarding operations, air defence, anti-submarine warfare and ship manoeuverability challenges.

A major detachment from the US navy left Naval Station Norfolk on 28th March to sail for Scottish waters and Exercise Joint Warrior.

This includes Destroyer Squadron 26, in:

• guided-missile destroyers, USS Laboon (DDG 58) and USS Barry (DDG 52)
• guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG 72) with HSL-46 Detachment Six embarked
• guided-missile frigate USS Kauffman (FFG 59) with HSL-46 Detachment Eight embarked
• Fleet Replenishment Oiler USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO 195)
• USS Vicksburg (CG 69) with HSL-42 Detachment Three embarked

These exercises are seen as the ideal training for new recruits, with the real-time scenarios bringing the most realistic operational experience under pressure. In transit from her home port to Scottish waters, USS Laboon will take the opportunity to conduct training exercises of its own – running drills, holding live-fire exercises and training Sailors on proper watchstanding.

The exercise will involve submarine activity, mine warfare and live firing.

Obviously fishing boats and leisure craft in the areas designated for the exercise – the offshore and coastal waters of north east, north and north west Scotland – are advised as appropriate by the Ministry of Defence.

The exercise area specifically runs from a line between the Rhinns of Galloway to the Antrim coast in Norther Ireland, sweeping north easterly to the west of Islay, through The Minch, round to the north west area of Sutherland. There is a further focal point on the east coast around and offshore of the Firth of Forth.

The advice to fishing boats is that warships taking part in the exercise have been instructed ‘to lend fishing vessels every  assistance in their dealings with exercise activity, especially when in the vicinity of submarines or participants conducting live firing.  You are invited to contact them as required to ensure that our two activities do not come into conflict’ – a delicate understatement.

There is an interesting blog website dealing with – and monitoring – the marine environmental impact of such exercises: The WDCS Fieldwork Blog.  It is maintained by – but does not necessarily represent the views of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Trust.

Exercise Joint Warrior is a UK-led, multi-warfare exercise designed to improve interoperability between allied navies and prepare participating crews to conduct combined operations during deployment.

Update 15th April: The volcanic ash cloud – or tephra – from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, that has caused much of Europe’s airspace to be closed for several days did not affect Ark Royal’s Sea King helicopters – these fly at a level below the ash cloud – but it did ground the carrier’s fixed wing aircraft.

The photograph above is of aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal, a leading UK participant in Exercise Joint Warrior 101. It is by copyright holder Ian Visits and reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.