Royal Navy’s Wildcats fend off fast attack craft on Exercise Tamber Shield

Claire Sadler 2nd May 2024 at 9:27am

Watch: Royal Navy’s 815 NAS practises fending off fast attack craft in Norwegian fjords

The Royal Navy’s 815 Naval Air Squadron is honing its warfighting capabilities as it practises fending off fast attack craft in the Norwegian fjords near Bergen.

Wildcat helicopters, P2000 patrol vessels and Norwegian ships are hunting for enemy vessels as part of British-led Joint Expeditionary Force Exercise Tamber Shield.

The topography of the region, with its deep and narrow inlets, offers fast-attack craft the perfect hiding place.

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Commanding Officer of 815 Naval Air Squadron, James Woods, told Forces News, “We’re essentially practising fighting against anything from small, fast attack craft, all the way through up to frigates and destroyers.

“The west coast of Norway provides a really useful training ground for us from challenging geography, all the way through to a really capable host nation and partner that we’re training with and against to hone our skills.”

Wildcat crews were put through their paces in an immersive exercise, where they had to hunt down, and ‘kill’, fast patrol boats hiding in the jagged coastline

Although just an exercise, these are important tactics being developed as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to increased security concerns in the High North, the territories of Nordic countries which include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden.

The role of 815 Naval Air Squadrons is to carry out warship detection, surveillance and intelligence gathering, so if Britain is called upon to help defend this coastline, they have experience of the topography.

The Wildcats also tested out their new “lethal claws” – Martlet and Sea Venom missiles.

Deputy Commander of the Norwegian Fleet, Captain Aspen Rasmussen, said: “Having time to exercise together brings us really forward, both nations.”

He added: “The geography has changed a little bit here in Norway, with Finland and Sweden joining Nato, which makes it much more important to be able to receive allied support here in the West Coast.

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