NATO naval forces continue to work hard to keep the peace, with French, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish flattops carriers deployed in the Mediterranean.
Two Major NATO Exercises Underway -
USNI News
NATO is currently conducting two major naval activities – Dynamic Mongoose 24
in the North Atlantic and Neptune Strike 24-1
, which involves four large-deck strike groups and spans both the Mediterranean Sea and Adriatic Sea as well as parts of the Baltic Sea.
NATO classes the Neptune Strike
series of drills, usually held twice a year, as “enhanced vigilance activity” intended to demonstrate NATO’s capabilities and strength and enhance Allied connectivity. “Ranging from the Central Mediterranean to the Black Sea region and all the way up to the Baltic Sea, STRIKFORNATO’s execution will blanket three Joint Operations Areas and assert NATO’s capability to protect every inch of Allied territory with the naval resources that are organic to the theatre,” stated the command’s release on the exercise.
Neptune Strike 24-1
began on Friday and ends on 10 May, and involves Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. According to a release by NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples, this will be Sweden’s first time participating in the Neptune Strike
series since it joined NATO on Mar. 7. The release also stated that as part of the exercise, NATO will control units operating across the entire Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, along with air units flying across Europe via air-to-air refueling and carrying out live-firing missions in the Baltic Sea and on firing ranges in Poland and Romania
Two carrier strike groups and two expeditionary strike groups are taking part in the exercise along with other NATO ships and submarines. The CSGs are the French CSG and the Cavour
CSG of Italy, while the ESGs are the Spanish “Dedalo 24” ESG and the Turkish Anadolu
ESG, with the Anadolu
ESG operating under Turkish national command rather than NATO command. The French CSG comprises of carrier FS Charles De Gaulle
(R91), French frigates FS Chevalier Paul
(D621) and FS Provence
(D652), Portuguese frigate NRP Bartolomeu Dias
(F333), Italian frigate ITS Carabiniere
(F593), a Greek frigate, a Spanish frigate, French fleet oiler BRF Jacques Chevallier
(A725) and a French attack submarine. The Cavour
CSG comprises carrier ITS Cavour
(550) and escorting Italian Navy surface ships.
The “Dedalo 24” ESG comprising of amphibious assault ship ESPS Juan Carlos I
(L-61) with embarked AV-8B Harrier II strike aircraft, amphibious transport dock ESPS Galicia
(L-51) and frigates ESPS Blas de Lezo
(F-103) and ESPS Reina Sofía
(F-84). A Spanish Marine Infantry battalion is embarked on the two amphibious ships. The Anadolu
ESG consists of amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu
(L-400), frigate TCG Salihreis
(F-246) and corvette TCG Buyukada
(F-512), along with an embarked Amphibious Marine Brigade force...