Commandos from the Royal Marines grabbed a ride on a German Navy submarine during a mission making up part of NATO exercise Cold Response 26 (CORE26).
CORE26 are the largest military drills for the alliance in the region this year, involving 14 nations and more than 25,000 troops.
The 11 days of manoeuvres started on Monday and are being run out of the Norwegian-U.S. headquarters in Reitan, near Bodø, Norway. About 25,000 troops from 13 other nations are participating: Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Italy; the Netherlands; Sweden; Spain; Türkiye; the United States; and the United Kingdom.
As per a Royal Navy statement, in this particular scenario commandos were operating in a fjord roughly 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle. Having hitched a ride aboard a German Navy Type 212A attack submarine, the marines headed for shore on inflatable raiding craft.
Their assigned task was a stealth insertion to enable them to identify ‘enemy’ positions and call in gunfire from naval assets before slipping away, again unseen.
The mission was carried out by members of the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS), Shore Reconnaissance Troop (SRT) and 148 Commando Forward Observation Battery.
Second in command of SRS, unnamed to retain anonymity, commented: “In the High North’s harsh and unforgiving domain, where extreme climatic conditions and adversary vigilance dominate, the ability to covertly insert reconnaissance teams ashore via Inflatable Raiding Craft (IRC) launched from a submarine is indispensable.
“It delivers the stealthy edge needed to penetrate denied areas, deny the enemy sanctuary, collect vital intelligence on subsurface and littoral threats and shape the operational environment before any escalation.
“This insertion capability from below the waves provides critical initiative to NATO in one of the planet’s most strategically contested regions.”
A similarly unnamed team leader from 148 Battery added: “Serials like this are similar to our historical roots dating back to the Falklands where 148 delivered naval gunfire prior to the retaking of the islands. Combining naval gunfire support with this is a key skill to support operations in the High North.”
About 1,500 Royal Marines have been training in northern Norway since the start of the year in readiness for CORE26 and as part of the U.K. contribution to NATO’s ongoing Arctic Sentry initiative.
- You can read more details on the Royal Navy website