NATO Exercises

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NATO forces strengthen ties in Baltic Sea exercise

A German-led maritime exercise, ‘Northern Coasts 2023’, involved Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1).
From 11th to 22nd September, over 3,000 sailors, marines, and aviators convened in the central Baltic Sea, within the territorial waters of Latvia and Estonia.

See - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/nato-fo ... -exercise/

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The Royal Navy took part in Exercise Repmus for the biggest autonomous war games of the year.

Experimentation ship XVPTBK, divers from RN DTXG, and other specialist units joined over 15 partner nations to test nearly 100 uncrewed systems.
Video at - https://twitter.com/RoyalNavy/status/17 ... 0641414507

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RFA Mounts Bay arrives in Helsinki Finland ahead of exercise Freezingwinds23
https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/ ... 73/photo/1

It's Baltic RoyalNavy personnel from RFA Mounts Bay Royal Marines hms, albion, RN Reserve, and RN MS Officer make final preparations for Ex Freezing Winds.
Finland leads its first major maritime exercise FRWI23 since joining NATO
https://twitter.com/RFAMountsBay/status ... 5060329655

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RFA Mounts Bay arrives in Helsinki Finland ahead of exercise Freezingwinds23
https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/ ... 73/photo/1

It's Baltic RoyalNavy personnel from RFA Mounts Bay Royal Marines hms, albion, RN Reserve, and RN MS Officer make final preparations for Ex Freezing Winds.
Finland leads its first major maritime exercise FRWI23 since joining NATO
https://twitter.com/RFAMountsBay/status ... 5060329655

Royal Marines arrive in Baltic for Finland's first major NATO exercise

Royal Marines have arrived in the Baltic Sea to play a pivotal role in amphibious operations as Finland leads its first major military exercise as a NATO member.

The commandos are about to carry out waterborne operations with specialist troops from the Uusimaa Brigade and US Marine Corps along Finland’s jagged and complex coastline.

Amphibious ship RFA Mounts Bay is currently in the Gulf of Finland, off the Uusimaa coast – with capital Helsinki contained along it – ready to land forces ashore on commando raids/covert missions as part of the exercise – codenamed Freezing Winds.

Specialists from across the UK Commando Force have been deployed and will be taken ashore by 4 Assault Squadron, who are expert landing craft pilots – used to navigating difficult waterways to get commandos inland to hit an adversary where they least expect.

Continues at - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... in-finland

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RFA Mounts Bay with embarked Royal Marines - the largest vessel participating in exercise FreezingWinds23 in the Baltic Sea among a total of 30 ships from 8 NATO countries and Sweden.

See - https://www-is-fi.translate.goog/kotima ... _hist=true

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NATO warships demonstrate interoperability
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/nato-wa ... erability/

NATO warships destroy 16 historical sea mines near Estonia
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/nato-wa ... r-estonia/

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British naval task force to deploy to Baltic area

Six Royal Navy warships, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, and a Royal Air Force maritime patrol aircraft will form the UK’s contribution to the Joint Expeditionary Force deployment.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Defence:

Continues at - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british ... ltic-area/

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WESTLANT23 MOJAVE GA ASI - Recent trials report

"More on update on the Mojave trials carried out on PWLS.
Below is a link to an article by GA ASI themselves on the trial.
Some interesting points;
*Mojave, a medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft derived from the company’s highly successful Gray Eagle. With a different engine, wings, control surfaces and landing gear, Mojave had been built to need less ground roll for takeoff and landing, as well as operate from rough or unimproved surfaces. (Some parts from the MQ9B as well).
*Even though HMS Prince of Wales has an inclined ramp at its bow to help its jets power into the air on takeoff, Mojave wouldn’t need that. Rather than driving the aircraft to a conventional starting position and then running straight down the normal launch axis of the carrier, Mojave could take off in a run from the stern at an angle toward the left – or as sailors say, port – side of the flight deck.
*Mojave’s pilots would need to be situated on the ship. So GA-ASI engineers built a ground control station on the back of a truck bed and drove it at speeds similar to those used by the Prince of Wales when it’s underway at sea for flight operations.
*100 real-life takeoff and landing cycles at a company test facility, as well as new software for the aircraft, the engineering team achieved a smooth process of execution and developed great confidence in their ability to take the Mojave from land to sea.
*The ship’s flight controllers talked on the radio to Mojave’s pilot as though he were onboard the aircraft, even though he was sitting at his instruments in a different part of the ship. After the flight, the ship recovered the aircraft as expected, just as it would any other in its air wing.
*Mojave’s successful test aboard HMS Prince of Wales has shown what’s possible and where new aircraft could lead; Royal Navy leaders already say they are thinking about what will come next.
What follows will hopefully be interesting and useful to innovating further UK carrier Aviation and support needs.

See - https://www.ga-asi.com/mojave-uas-carri ... IMo4GMslI8

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Sailors and marines complete massive US-led humanitarian mission in the Pacific

British sailors, marines and soldiers joined the world’s largest humanitarian and goodwill mission.
They joined the US Navy-led Pacific Partnership – a six month deployment across swathes of the Pacific – delivering assistance, guidance, training, education and culture to thousands of people in more than half a dozen nations.

The Royal Navy provided the deployment’s deputy commander, plus divers, a medical planner, a dental nurse, infectious diseases specialist and a Royal Marines communications instructor, while the Army supplied a combat engineer, a security force assistance liaison officer (working alongside the disaster relief team) and a piper.

Born out of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, Pacific Partnership is a unique goodwill mission centred on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief readiness (hence the motto ‘Prepare in Calm to Respond In Crisis’ – but embracing medical assistance and aid, throwing in some construction projects and even cultural events.

This is the 19th year the deployment has been run, directed from the amphibious ship USS Pearl Harbor – similar to the Royal Navy’s HMS Albion and Bulwark – and supported at times by the littoral combat ship USS Jackson, Japan’s JS Shimokita and South Korea’s ROKS Chan Ja Bong.

Pacific Partnership is vast in scope – countries visited include Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga – and length: USS Pearl Harbor left San Diego in June and returns in time for Christmas.

Continues - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... he-pacific

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Navy Lookout
NATO warships COM SNMG1 joined by HMS Portland and RFA Tidesurge are assembling in Stavanger, Norway ahead of ASW exercise DynamicMongoose which runs 29 April - 10 May.