Exercise Neptune Warrior 07/Sky Lance Has Begun

Note: For Milcom Monitoring Post readers in Europe, this exercise should afford you and excellent opportunity to monitor the UK RN/RAF and TASCOMM radio systems on HF. Drop me a line and let me know what you are hearing.

The UK’s largest maritime training course and a major air exercise are being brought together beneath, on and above the waters of the majority of the UK for the first time later this month (17-28 September 2007).

Neptune Warrior, a twice yearly Royal Navy and Royal Air Force run exercise, which qualifies British forces to work and fight in a task group this time will be coordinated and integrated with the RAF’s Exercise Sky Lance which aims to offer similarly aligned training.

The combined forces of Neptune Warrior and Sky Lance will feature a total of 17 warships and around 100 aircraft from the UK and eleven allied nations. The UK forces will be joined by forces from the United States, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Spain and Norway.

Both Neptune Warrior and Sky Lance will provide participants with a first class introduction to the problems they may encounter during the planning and execution of coalition operations with the lessons learned benefiting real-world missions.

Multi-national operations can be a significant challenge for the armed forces but are essential to practise interoperability, develop common operating procedures and to learn from each other. The English border regions and the highlands of Scotland provide a challenging environment to all participants in terms of topography, oceanography and, on occasion (!), adverse weather conditions.

From a maritime perspective participating ships, include the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates HMS Montrose, HMS Lancaster and HMS Westminster and four submarines.

In the air, Exercise Sky Lance will be executed across the whole of the UK with up to 100 aircraft participating per day; Harriers, Typhoons, Tornados and Hawks will make up the bulk of the RAF’s air input.

Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) provision will be made by both maritime patrol aircraft and other Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) aircraft and additional support will be provided by air-to-air refuelling assets such as Tristars and VC-10s.

The exercises will also benefit from the participation of land-based formations including Tactical Air Controllers, Artillery Spotters and RAF mobile convoys providing a variety of realistic targets for the many air operations planned.

Destroyer Squadron 22 Completes Neptune Warrior

Photo: Guided missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) pulls up alongside USS Bainbridge (DDG 96) during maneuvering exercises in the Atlantic. Laboon and Bainbridge are both in transit to participate in the Neptune Warrior training course, which will test the interoperability of NATO coalition forces. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Coleman Thompson.

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Michael Starkey, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

USS BAINBRIDGE, At Sea (NNS) -- Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 22 in company with Norfolk-based USS Bainbridge (DDG 96), USS Laboon (DDG 58), USS Normandy (CG 60) and Mayport-based USS Simpson (FFG 56) completed the Neptune Warrior course in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Scotland on May 3.

Neptune Warrior is a course designed to increase the interoperability between coalition and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies while conducting maritime operations. The course takes units from the participating nations and divides them into different groups to simulate contact between air, surface and sub-surface threats. Participants included France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“This has been a great opportunity for all of our forces to integrate and practice tactics, techniques and procedures,” said Master Chief Operational Specialist (SW) Steven Hasselberger, DESRON 22 command master chief. “Our exercises are a ramp up for readiness during real-world evolutions, and we’ve done a lot of sharing of ideas, sharing of information and it’s been a very successful tactical event.”

The complexity of operating with many different ships from various countries is the primary lesson learned from the Neptune Warrior course.

“With the future of naval operations being us working with allied nations, where we actually have allied ships deploying with our carrier strike groups through operations, the likelihood of working with allied ships is becoming more and more frequent,” said Lt. Kenneth Myrick, DESRON 22 intelligence officer.

DESRON 22 was embarked aboard Bainbridge, which served as a flagship for the task force. Bainbridge, Laboon and Simpson will return to their respective homeports while Normandy will continue on to its regularly scheduled deployment supporting the global war on terrorism.