UK: Joint Warrior Exercise Comes to End

Royal Navy ships, submarines and aircraft together with NATO partners have completed the final Exercise Joint Warrior for 2013 off the coast of Scotland.

Joint Warrior exercises run twice a year – in the spring and autumn – with the autumn session having just come to an end. Fifteen separate naval units from the UK, France, Denmark and Norway deployed under the direction of the Commander Danish Task Group onboard HDMS Absalon.

Joint Warrior is a tri-service exercise and the autumn session saw elements of Army and RAF working alongside Royal Navy frigates, minehunters, and survey vessel HMS Echo, as well as negotiating the unpredictable British weather and rolling seas.

It is coordinated and planned by a joint team of Royal Navy and RAF personnel based at Northwood HQ, London, augmented by up to 150 personnel from the three services, many of whom are Reservists.

Sandown Class minehunters HMS Blyth and HMS Bangor both took part.

Lt Cdr Ash Spender, Commanding Officer of HMS Blyth, said:

“The training gleaned from this exercise is critical to my Command team.

“The Command and control required to work in a Task Group formation with Coalition and NATO partners is crucial to modern multi-national warfare.”

Joint Warrior involved a number of evolving crises and conflict scenarios involving multiple nations, internal disputes, piracy and terrorist activities. Run over two weeks the exercise saw the development of simulated political and military tension in a fictional nation resulting in hostilities and warfighting.

The next round of Exercise Joint Warrior will get underway in the spring.

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Press Release, October 21, 2013; Image: Royal Navy