Steadfast Defender 2024 (STDE24) is the largest military exercise staged by NATO since the alliance conducted ‘Reforger’ in 1988. In this photo essay, we cover the RN’s participation in the maritime elements of the exercise.
Head of the US Northern Command recently told Senators that Russia could have its most powerful Yasen (NATO name Severodvinsk) class attack submarines on persistent patrols off either of America’s coasts within two years which will “reduce decision space for a national senior leader in a time of crisis”. Here we look at these boats and the wider Russian submarine threat that is equally applicable to the UK and Europe.
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On 29th March the MoD published a new document ‘The UK’s Defence Contribution in the High North’. Here we look at the strategy and the contribution that the RN is expected to make in support of UK Arctic interests.
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This brief photo and video essay shows Royal Marines of Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron, 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group conducting a small boat raid from a Royal Navy Astute class submarine.
NATO Exercise Cold Response 2022 (CR22), the largest cold-weather exercise in Norway since the 1980s began this week. In this photo and video essay, we look at the naval aspects, the strategic context and Royal Navy participation.
Antarctic patrol ship HMS Protector has sailed to within 1,050 kilometres of the North Pole during her first patrol of the Arctic. Only the RN’s nuclear submarines surfacing in the ice have got closer.
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HMS Kent is currently operating in the Barents Sea with US Navy warships conducting maritime security operations. This is a significant deployment as officially the US Navy says it has not sent surface ships to the area since the mid-1980s.More
For the first time in a decade, a Royal Navy submarine has operated under the Arctic ice. HMS Trenchant surfaced in the Beaufort Sea this week, joining two US Navy boats exercising submarine warfare skills under the polar ice cap.
Two Royal Navy submarine officers recently participated in the US Navy’s ICEX 2016. Two American attack submarines (SSNs) navigated under the Arctic ice and surfaced where a camp was established on an ice floe. Shortly after the exercise concluded it was announced that an RN Trafalgar class submarine will conduct under-ice operations in the Arctic in the near future. Although a strategically wise decision, this is another pressure on the RN’s stretched SSN fleet which numbers just 7 boats.
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