Major military exercise off the west coast of Scotland ends

Running until Sunday, October 27, Exercise Strike Warrior involved 35 aircraft and around 2,000 armed forces personnel.

The UK-led exercise brought together ten allied nations and included the Carrier Support Group (CSG), which is led by Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

The exercise also involved the US Carrier Strike Group 8 (CSG8), centred on the USS Harry S Truman.

Britain’s biggest warship hosted the US Strike Group Commander Rear Admiral Sean Bailey, who watched UK F-35B Lightning stealth fighters launch from her flight deck.

The Truman’s F/A-18 Super Hornets and an E/A-18G Growler conduct a flypast over the two naval groups.

The exercise was one of the final milestones in the preparations of the Strike Group to undertake a global deployment to the Indo-Pacific region in 2025.

Lightnings from the UK’s new front-line strike fighter unit, 809 Naval Air Squadron, operated from the deck of HMS Prince of Wales, training for strike missions that has included the dropping of live ordnance onto the Cape Wrath range in Scotland.

The exercise involved warships and support vessels from the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary along with elements of the British Army, Royal Air Force and NATO warships from six nations – Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and the UK.

The RAF supported the anti-submarine defence of the Carrier Strike Group through provision of Poseidon P8 maritime patrol aircraft while other NATO aircraft supported F35s in defending the strike group from “aggressor” aircraft, to fend off threats from the sky.

A total of 35 aircraft took part in the exercise with some of them operating from HMS Gannet at Prestwick.

Between these large scale set-piece activities, participating ships conducted their own training – fighting fires and floods, dealing with mock casualties, replenishing with fuel and stores while underway. 

Captain John Cromie, Deputy Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, said: “Strike Warrior has delivered a short and intense period of training for the UK Carrier Strike Group, testing the group all the way from individual responses to a fire or flood through to complex long-range F-35B missions involving live weapon drops in support of Royal Marines ashore.

“Throughout the Strike Group has taken the opportunity to work alongside NATO partners participating in activity concurrent to Strike Warrior, confirming our procedures and interoperability with key Allies and demonstrating the UK’s continued and absolute commitment to NATO.”