Five NATO Ships Head for Portsmouth for Warfare Trial

Five foreign warships are on their way to Portsmouth to prepare for a four-day NATO warfare trial.

The five ships arrive in the Naval Base between Wednesday (Sep 16) and Friday ahead of the electronic warfare trial which takes place off the south coast from September 21.

First to arrive in Portsmouth is the Turkish ship TGS Orucreis on Wednesday, followed by the French vessel FNS Latouche Treville on Thursday. The final three arrive on Friday – HNLMS De Zeven Provincien (The Netherlands), SPS Alvaro De Bazan (Spain) and HNOMS Otto Sverdrup (Norway).

Personnel from each ship will attend a pre-trial briefing at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, on Friday (Sep 18). The ships will all sail from Portsmouth on September 21 for the trial and will be joined by Portsmouth-based Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans. Several aircraft will also take part, including Harrier GR9s from the UK.

The trial is aimed at enhancing NATO’s knowledge of ship and task force defence and testing the joint workings of weapon and sensor systems.

HMS St Albans’ Commanding Officer, Commander Adrian Pierce, said: “This will be a challenging and exciting opportunity to work closely with our allies. The focus is the performance of NATO electronic warfare systems against a variety of anti-ship missile threats.”

He added: “It will not only help develop new tactics that will enhance and improve the Royal Navy’s response to this type of threat,  but also develop front-line procedures that work across the NATO war-fighting community – essential when working as part of a modern versatile maritime force.”