HMS Illustrious Docks in Lisbon

Royal UK Navy helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious has just paid a routine visit to Lisbon, at the cruise terminal, Jardim do Tabaco, after completing Exercise Deep Blue.

Exercise Deep Blue was an Anti-Submarine Warfare exercise involving surface, submarine and air participants from the UK, France and the Netherlands.

It included 9 Merlin Mk2 helicopters embarked in HMS Illustrious, the French frigate FS La Motte Picquet and British type 23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Richmond, as well as British, French and Dutch submarines and French maritime patrol aircraft.

For an intensive two week period, a multitude of exercise scenarios tested, and proved, the capabilities of all units working together as a multi-national task group.

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Press Release, June 26, 2014; Image: UK Navy