NATO ships arrive in Scotland for Europe’s largest military drill

Europe, News April 11, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

The exercise will include over 50 ships and submarines, 70 aircraft and about 13,000 personnel from 14 different countries

NATO’s Standing Naval Forces arrived in Scotland over the past two days to participate in one of the largest-ever Exercise Joint Warrior, set to take place until April 24, the alliance said Saturday.

The UK-led Exercise Joint Warrior training would be on the largest scale in the history of the exercise for which NATO warships, aircraft and personnel have arrived in Scotland.

The biannual military drills will be conducted between the 11 and 24 April, according to a statement released by the alliance. Joint Warrior is held twice a year – in April and October – and includes several locations in Scotland and in the sea off its coast.

“This exercise is a unique opportunity for us to work with our Allied shipmates,” said Lieutenant Commander Matthew Hamm, USS VICKSBURG’s operations officer. “For most U.S. Sailors, our training and qualifications are done with other U.S. Navy ships; multinational exercises like this help our Sailors learn how to cooperate and excel with other navies in a challenging and multidimensional environment.”

The aim of the exercises is to provide complex and coordinated training between military forces from various countries and to integrate land and maritime forces. They will also have an anti-terrorist dimension.

“Joint Warrior is a very good opportunity to showcase the interoperability skills we as an Alliance maritime force are always perfecting. With this exercise we have a chance to work together on a large scale and to implement all of the lessons learned from our previous exercises. It will be an exciting and busy time at sea,” said Captain Gennaro Carola, Standing NATO Maritime Group Two’s (SNMG2) Chief of Staff.