German Navy supply ship Berlin has set off on a months-long mission taking her twice across the Atlantic Ocean to assist in NATO monitoring and participate in international exercises.
One of the largest ships in the Bundeswehr’s fleet, the 20,000-tonne Berlin set sail last Sunday and she is set to be deployed until December. The 174-metre vessel has a fuel capacity of 9.5 million litres and can also carry 1.3 million litres of water, 230 tonnes of food and 200 tonnes of ammunition.
As well as assisting in patrolling the GIUK Gap — the area in the northern Atlantic Ocean between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom that forms a naval chokepoint — the focuses of the trip will be participating in the Canadian exercise Nanook-Tuugaalik at the end of August and the U.S. Exercise Unitas at the end of September.
As part of Exercise Nanook-Tuugaalik, monitoring Arctic waters around the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage between Canada and Greenland, Berlin will pay a visit to the port of Nuuk, Greenland.
Its commanding officer Captain Karsten Uwe Schlüter commented: “The exercise with our Canadian partners offers us a special opportunity.”
He added: “We can familiarize ourselves with a strategically important sea area where the German Navy rarely operates. This will provide us with valuable experience.”
Both exercises will provide an opportunity to test the ship’s newly equipped iMERZNaval Operations Rescue Centre, a kind of floating hospital featuring two operating rooms and a ward for more than 20 patients. The new facility was installed during the final stages of Berlin’s refit in June this year.
Berlin has two new NH-90 Sea Lion multi-purpose helicopters embarked for her mission; during the exercises, they will evacuate “injured” sailors from the other allied ships and bring them on board for further treatment.
“We will use Unitas in particular, with participating navies from over 20 nations, for intensive testing of operational scenarios for Role 2B, a mobile medical facility, within the formation. This will test and improve our capabilities under realistic conditions,” said Capt. Schlüter.
The final part of the deployment will see Berlin re-cross the North Atlantic for a demanding four-week combat training programme. Run by the Royal Navy and staged in the English Channel, the Operational Sea Training is scheduled to run from mid-November and on its completion Berlin is scheduled to return to her home port of Wilhelmshaven on December 13.
- You can read more details on the Bundeswehr website