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UK to deploy 20,000 service personnel to huge Nato military exercise 15th January 2024 at 11:30am

Ex Blunting Strike soldiers form the Experimentation and Task Group 22112023 CREDIT MOD

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps delivered a major speech at Lancaster House, to set out his vision for the UK to deter threats (Picture: MOD)

Twenty thousand British soldiers, sailors and aviators will be deployed by land, sea and air across Europe to participate in a huge Nato exercise later this year.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has announced the deployment of Navy, Army and RAF members to the 31-nation drill across Europe during a speech in London today.

Exercise Steadfast Defender will provide “vital reassurance against the Putin menace” as Mr Shapps warns the West stands at a “crossroads”.

The war games come after ministers announced the RAF airstrikes, with the US, on the Houthis in Yemen, and a further £2.5bn support package to Ukraine. 

Mr Shapps has set out his vision for how the UK will deter threats, as allies remain concerned about the threat posed by Mr Putin as his war approaches its second year.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps giving a speech at London's Lancaster House 15012024 NO REUSE CREDIT PA WIRE, PA IMAGES.jpg
Defence Secretary Mr Shapps said his commitment to getting Armed Forces personnel the resources they need to do their job is “iron cast” (Picture: PA)

‘We stand at a crossroads’

In the Lancaster House speech, Mr Shapps said: “We are in a new era and we must be prepared to deter our enemies, prepared to lead our allies and prepared to defend our nation, whenever the call comes.

“Today our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers, old enemies are reanimated, battle lines are being redrawn, the tanks are literally on Ukraine’s lawn and the foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core.

“We stand at a crossroads.”

Mr Shapp added that his commitment to getting Armed Forces personnel the resources they need to do their job is “iron cast”.

“Our great resource has always been the men and women who work tirelessly to protect our nation, but to defend our nation from the increasing dangers of tomorrow they must have what they need to do the job.”

He added: “That’s why this Conservative government has already taken vital steps to increase defence spending”.

Watch: How Nato’s newest multinational battlegroup stays ready for combat.

The deployment will see the UK use the RAF’s most up-to-date fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, the Royal Navy’s most advanced warships and submarines, and a full range of the Army’s capabilities – from logistics to armour to special operations forces.

Some 16,000 troops with tanks, artillery and helicopters will be deployed from the British Army across Eastern Europe starting next month as part of the exercise.

The Royal Navy will deploy more than 2,000 sailors across eight warships and submarines, while more than 400 Royal Marines Commandos will be sent to the Arctic Circle.

The RAF will use F-35B Lightning attack aircraft and Poseidon P-8 surveillance aircraft.

Forces News has taken a look at what is known about the numbers and equipment being sent here.

Watch: F-35B ‘Beast Mode’ on HMS Prince of Wales pushing jet’s capabilities.

Defence sources said that the exercise will prepare for the invasion of a member state by any aggressor, with the main threats being considered to be Russia and terrorism.

Labour backed the commitment of UK forces to Nato, but said Mr Shapps’s speech was “little more than PR spin”.

“Grant Shapps is reheating old announcements from other people,” a party spokesman said.

“The PM confirmed 20,000 UK troops will exercise in Europe three months ago, while Nato released details of Steadfast Defender four months ago.”

Ukrainian training

Mr Shapps confirmed in his speech that the UK has now trained more than 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

The Defence Secretary also warned the international community that they cannot let its support “slip” now as Vladimir Putin believes “the West lacks staying power”.

“Since the future world order is at stake, we must prove him wrong,” Mr Shapps said.

Watch: In September, a British Army instructor praised Ukrainians training in UK.

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What is Russia’s A-50 AWACS plane that Ukraine claims to have shot down? 15th January 2024 at 1:30pm

Russian A-50U radar surveillance and guidance system aircraft150124 PICTURE: Press Service of Rostec State Corporation

Each of Russia’s A-50s reportedly costs more than £235m (Picture: Press Service of Rostec State Corporation)

Ukraine has said it shot down one of Russia’s most valuable military planes and seriously damaged another, dealing a major blow to Moscow’s airborne command and control capabilities. 

Army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app that “Ukraine’s air force destroyed an enemy A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an enemy Il-22 air control centre”.

He added: “I am grateful to the air force for the perfectly planned and executed operation in the Azov Sea region!”

The Beriev A-50 was supposedly shot down over the Sea of Azov, while the Ilyushin Il-22 was also hit, but was able to make a forced landing.

If true, the loss of the A-50 is a serious blow to Russia’s ability to detect Ukrainian threats and mount its own offensive airborne operations.

The Soviet-era A-50 airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) can detect missiles and enemy aircraft, and can also be used as an airborne command centre, coordinating targets for Russian jets, helicopters or drones.

The Il-22 has a similar role, but is older and less capable.

The Beriev A-50 four-engine, turbofan jet-propelled aircraft, which goes by the Nato reporting name of Mainstay, is Russia’s version of US Air Force’s Boeing E-3 Sentry.

The unit cost of the Russian aircraft is reportedly more than £235m.

It features a top-mounted radome that contains a high-range rotating radar which scans 360 degrees.

The modernised version of the aircraft, the A-50U, can reportedly monitor aerial targets out to a distance of 400 miles and ground targets out to around 180 miles, simultaneously tracking 300 ground targets or 40 airborne.

The A-50 has a 15-person crew, consisting of highly trained personnel and likely senior officers given its tactical importance.

The loss of trained personnel like these – assuming none survived – would be yet another blow to Russia..

Initially, there were around 40 A-50s when they first entered service in 1985, but according to the London-based IISS think tank, Russia had only nine left in operation by 2021, including four of the updated A-50U variants.

Russian IL-22M Fighter Bomber posted on Telegram 150124 CREDIT front ukrainian X
The damaged fin of the Russian Il-22 that is believed to have been hit over the Sea of Azov on Sunday evening (Picture: @front_ukrainian/X)

The other Russian command plane was reportedly hit and forced to return to base.

Images emerged showing the damaged tail section of the Ilyushin Il-22 Coot, which was able to make an emergency landing.

If Ukraine did manage to hit both the A-50 and the Il-22, Sunday would mark the single worst day for the Russian air force in the 23 months since Russia widened its war on Ukraine.

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In numbers: Who and what the UK is sending to Nato’s biggest military exercise since Cold War 15th January 2024 at 10:54am

Watch: 20,000 British soldiers, sailors and aviators to deploy by land, sea and air across Europe to participate in a huge Nato exercise later this year.

The UK is expected to send 20,000 military personnel to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24 – one of Nato’s largest military exercises in Europe since the Cold War.

During the first half of 2024, personnel from the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force will deploy across Europe alongside 31 Nato allies and Sweden as the alliance practises repelling an invasion by Russian forces.

Here is what is known about numbers and equipment being sent.

Royal Navy 

  • Eight warships and submarines, and more than 2,000 sailors are to deploy
  • A UK Carrier Strike Group, centred on a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier and her air group of F-35B Lightning jets and helicopters, and surrounded by escort frigates and destroyers, will operate as part of a naval force of allied warships and submarines in the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic Sea
  • More than 400 Royal Marines Commandos will be deployed to the Arctic Circle at the heart of an allied amphibious task group designed to land in the High North and defend the alliance in one of the world’s harshest environments

British Army

  • 16,000 troops from the British Army are to be deployed across Eastern Europe from February to June 2024, taking with them tanks, artillery, helicopters, and parachutes
  • There will be live fire manoeuvres, parachute jumps, an Army and Navy joint helicopter force, and Army Special Operations Forces on deployment

RAF

  • F-35B Lightning attack aircraft and Poseidon P8 surveillance aircraft are to be sent
  • The RAF will practise flying in simulated conflict scenarios against near-peer adversaries

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US Navy still searching for 2 SEALs missing in the Gulf of Aden By ALISON BATH STARS AND STRIPES • January 14, 2024

Service members from the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill board a stateless dhow off the coast of Somalia on Feb. 12, 2021.

Service members from the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill board a stateless dhow off the coast of Somalia on Feb. 12, 2021. (Louis Thompson Staats IV/U.S. Navy)

Two Navy SEALs still are missing in the Gulf of Aden more than two days after conducting nighttime operations off the coast of Somalia.

The incident happened Thursday as the SEALs were attempting to board a suspicious vessel in rough seas, The Associated Press reported Saturday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

One SEAL was attempting to board the vessel when they were knocked off by high waves, AP reported. The other SEAL jumped into the sea to rescue their team member, according to the AP report.

Search and rescue efforts are ongoing in the Gulf of Aden, where the waters are warm, AP reported.

U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement on Friday that the sailors were missing but did not offer additional details out of operational security concerns and respect for the families. The statement did not say what Navy ships or other U.S. military personnel may have been involved.

It wasn’t clear why the vessel drew the team’s attention. Naval forces in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations regularly conduct operations intercepting weapons being sent to Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.

Map shows the Kenya-Somalia coastline and disputed area.

Map shows the Kenya-Somalia coastline and disputed area. (AP)

In January 2023, Navy forces intercepted 2,116 AK-47 rifles from a vessel in the Gulf of Oman along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen, Stars and Stripes reported at the time.

That incident came after similar interdictions in late 2022 that resulted in the seizures of more than 170 tons of potentially explosive chemicals and 50 tons of ammunition rounds, fuses and rocket propellants from fishing vessels also transiting in the same area.

Those international interdiction efforts also intercept millions of dollars in heroin, methamphetamine, hashish and other illicit drugs. The latest of those operations resulting in the seizure of an estimated $11 million of illegal drugs from a vessel on Jan. 5 by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter operating under Combined Task Force 150 of the Combined Maritime Forces, U.S. 5th Fleet said in a statement on Jan. 8.

That interdiction followed others in late December that seized nearly $50 million in illegal drugs, the Navy said.

U.S. officials have said proceeds from drug sales are used to finance weapons for Houthi militants. Since Nov. 19, Houthi militants in Yemen have attempted to attack or harass ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden 28 times, CENTCOM said Saturday in a post to its official page on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Those attacks included the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles, CENTCOM said. 

The January 2023 seizure of the rifles “is part of a continued pattern of destabilizing activity from Iran,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/ U.S. 5th Fleet, said at the time.

U.S. officials were careful to distance interdiction efforts in the region and retaliatory strikes on Friday and Saturday against Houthi-controlled military sites in Yemen from Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational effort to address Houthi militant attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

author picture

Alison Bath reports on the U.S. Navy, including U.S. 6th Fleet, in Europe and Africa. She has reported for a variety of publications in Montana, Nevada and Louisiana, and served as editor of newspapers in Louisiana, Oregon and Washington.

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USS Amycus (ARL-2) was one of 39 Achelous class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Amycus (in Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and Melia), she was the only US Naval vessel to bear the name

 

The U.S. Navy landing craft repair ship USS Amycus (ARL-2) off Richmond, California 3 June 1943. Amycus was ordered as tank landing ship LST-489 and was reclassified during construction. Here, she still wears her LST hull number 

The U.S. Navy landing craft repair ship USS Amycus (ARL-2) off San Francisco, California (USA), 10 August 1943. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 1L.

Construction[edit]

Originally projected as LST-489, an LST-1-class tank landing ship, this ship was redesignated ARL-2 and named Amycus on 13 January 1943. She was laid down on 17 January 1943, under Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 1009, by Kaiser Shipyards, Yard No. 4, Richmond, California; launched on 2 April 1943; delivered on 3 June 1943, to the Matson Navigation Company, San Francisco, for conversion to a landing craft repair ship; and commissioned on 30 July 1943.[3]

Service history[edit]

Amycus conducted shakedown training along the California coast before departing San Diego on 20 September 1943, and heading for the South Pacific to join the Service Forces of the US 7th Fleet. She made port calls at Pago Pago, American Samoa; Nouméa, New Caledonia; Brisbane and Port of Townsville, Australia; and Milne Bay, New Guinea. On 29 November, the vessel arrived at Buna, Papua New Guinea where she joined Task Force 76 (TF 76). She remained at Buna until late April 1944, servicing and repairing small escort vessels and landing boats.[3]

On 25 April 1944, Amycus got underway for Cape Cretin, New Guinea, where she joined a convoy bound for Hollandia. She reached that base on 3 May, and assumed duty as a repair ship and the flagship of the landing craft control officer. The ship remained in Humboldt Bay through the summer and autumn carrying out repair and tender services for various landing craft. On 20 December, Amycus left Hollandia and proceeded to Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island. A week later, she sortied with a task group destined to take part in the Lingayen Gulf landings. As her convoy crossed the South China Sea, there were numerous air raid alerts, but only one attack materialized. On 7 January 1945, two enemy planes came in low to attack. One was shot down by a screening vessel, and the other broke off her approach and escaped undamaged.[3]

Amycus anchored in Lingayen Gulf on 9 January, and the bombardment of the Luzon beaches began at 07:00 that day. Shortly thereafter, the ship began repairing battle-damaged landing craft. During the Allied assault, Amycus fired intermittently at enemy aircraft. While at anchor on 29 January, a friendly plane accidentally jettisoned a bomb which exploded about 60 ft (18 m) off her port quarter. Shrapnel from the explosion killed three and wounded nine crew members and caused minor damage to the repair ship’s hull.[3]

Amycus remained in Lingayen Gulf through 26 June, when she sailed for Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands. Upon her arrival there, the ship operated under Service Squadron 3 at the naval base at Subic Bay. The Japanese surrender in August found Amycus still providing services at Subic Bay. She remained there until 27 October, when she shaped a course for the United States.[3]

Post-war service[edit]

The ship reached San Francisco on 30 November 1945, and later steamed to Portland, Oregon. Decommissioned on 15 November 1946, she joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet in the Columbia River. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 June 1970. She was sold for scrap on 13 August 1971, to Zidell Explorations, Inc., of Portland

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HMS Reclaim was a deep diving and submarine rescue vessel and was the last British warship to have sails in the Royal Navy. (Photos)

 

HMS Reclaim in Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire, for Portsmouth Navy Day 1980.

HMS Reclaim a deep diving and submarine rescue vessel was the last British warship to have sails. Although rarely used, they could add half a knot to her speed. HMS Reclaim also served as a filming location for the Doctor Who serial “The Sea Devils” in 1971

She was originally intended to be the King Salvor-class ocean salvage vessel Salverdant[2] and was fitted with specialised equipment including underwater television cameras and sonar and echosounding apparatus. She was also equipped for submarine rescue work.

At the time of her commissioning in 1949, Reclaim was the Royal Navy’s only vessel capable of carrying out deep diving operations. Upon completion Reclaim was attached to HMS Vernon, Portsmouth as a diving tender.

OPERATIONAL SERVICE[EDIT]

  • 1948: diving from Reclaim, Petty Officer Wilfred Bollard set a world deep diving record of 535 ft (163 m).
  • 1951: on 14 June 1951 Reclaim found the submerged wreck of the submarine HMS Affray, missing since 17 April, during which operation her new underwater television apparatus was used. One of the divers from Reclaim working on the Affray was Lionel “Buster” Crabb, who later became famous when in 1956 he disappeared in Portsmouth harbour.
  • 1953: Attended the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead.[3]
  • 1956: Lt. George Wookey of the Royal Navy’s Clearance Diving Branch dived from HMS Reclaim to set a new deep diving record of 600 ft (180 m) in Sor Fjord, Norway on 12 October 1956.
  • 1960: Reclaim was assigned to HMS Lochinvar, Port Edgar for service as a Mine Counter Measures Support Ship and Diving Trials Ship. From January and May 1961 she carried out diving trials in the Canary Isles. She was later relieved as Mine Counter Measures Support Ship by the minelayer HMS Abdiel, which enabled her to concentrate on her roles as deep diving support vessel.
  • 1962: Deep Diving Trials programme begun, culminating in ten dives off Toulon in 1965 to 600 ft (180 m).
  • 1968: Reclaim took part in the salvage operation on the Air Lingus Viscount 803 Aircraft EI-AOM, the “Saint Phelim”, which had crashed into the Irish Sea off Tuskar Rock on 24 March 1968. Over a period of 26 days, divers working from the Reclaim performed 91 dives in depths of 250 ft (76 m), managing to salvage a third of the aircraft’s wreckage. Unfortunately, when Reclaim attempted to raise the fuselage to the surface using straps instead of nets, the wreckage broke apart upon reaching the surface and sank.
  • 1974: Reclaim despatched to Harstad in Norway in May to recover a ditched Wessex helicopter from HMS Hermes. The Wessex was only located when Reclaim, using its underwater camera capability snagged the helicopter with the camera. A largely successful operation was spoiled when the gearbox and engine pulled out of the body of the aircraft.
  • 1977: Reclaim attended the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review off Spithead. Reclaim was the only ship to attend both the Coronation and Silver Jubilee reviews.[3]
  • 1979: Reclaim (at that time the oldest ship in the Navy), was paid off, to be replaced by the new Seabed Operations Vessel Challenger.
  • 15 May 1982 arrived at Bruges, Belgium for demolition.[1]

TRIVIA[EDIT]

HMS Reclaim served as a filming location for the Doctor Who serial “The Sea Devils” in 1971.[4]

It was the last British warship to have sails. Although rarely used, they could add half a knot to her speed

https://www.mcdoa.org.uk/HMS_Reclaim_A_World_Record_Breaker.htm

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