Five Nato warships call in at UK port ahead of alliance's largest exercise since the Cold War
22 February 2024, 15:46 | Updated: 22 February 2024, 15:54
Five Nato warships have been carrying out defence drills off the UK coast ahead of the largest exercise by the alliance since the Cold War.
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Standing Nato Maritime Group One (SNMG1), made up of five warships, visited the Hampshire port before heading off to join drills as part of the Exercise Steadfast Defender on Thursday.
The five ships, the Spanish flagship ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbon, BNS Louis Marie (Belgium), FS Normandie (France), FGS Bonn (Germany) and ESPS Cantabria (Spain), had also carried out gunnery exercises while travelling from Scotland.
It comes after armoured vehicles belonging to the 7 Light Merchanised Brigade, also known as ‘The Desert Rats’, were loaded onto the 23,000-tonne cargo vessel, Anvil Point, alongside Land Rovers, engineers' tractors and support vehicles near Southampton.
They were loaded onto the vessel ahead of the Steadfast Defender due to take place off Norway.
Elsewhere, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales set sail from Portsmouth despite having limited notice to prepare after its sister ship suffered a propeller issue which forced it to cancel its deployment to Steadfast Defender.
The Royal Navy also sent its four smallest ships, the P2000 "plastic patrol craft" HMS Biter, Blazer, Exploit and Trumpeter, earlier this month to take part.
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A total of 90,000 troops from 31 countries will be taking part in the Steadfast Defender exercise, according to a Nato spokesman.
He said: "Steadfast Defender 2024 will demonstrate Nato's ability to deploy forces rapidly from North America and other parts of the Alliance to reinforce the defence of Europe.
"It will show that we can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometres, from the high north to central and eastern Europe, and in any conditions."
While a Royal Navy spokesman previously said: "It will lead an international task force taking part in Steadfast Defender - an exercise across multiple regions and domains from land and sea to air and space.
"Spanning several months and thousands of kilometres, it will see tens of thousands of personnel work together to showcase Nato's ability to deter enemies and defend allied territory."
