USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) conducted a second set of drills with the Italian carrier ITS Cavour (CVH-550), this time in U.S. Central Command on Friday.
Meanwhile, USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is in the North Sea and conducting drills with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), will soon conduct joint drills with the Royal Navy’s Prince of Wales Carrier Struke Group, formally known as the U.K. Carrier Strike Group and the Norwegian Armed Forces.
On Friday, in Lincoln sailed with Cavour which is on its way back to Italy after a deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The two strike groups had previously drilled together near Guam in early August.
“We are proud to work once again alongside Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, after almost two months from our first interaction in the Pacific Ocean,” said Rear Adm. Giancarlo Ciappina, commander, Cavour CSG in a Friday release.
“It has represented another precious opportunity to train together and to exchange experiences and knowledge, highlighting the versatility and flexibility of Navies operating on a global scale, wherever a presence is required to keep maritime lines of communication open and safe to strengthen our bonds and to enhance levels of cooperation with commitment to security.”
The release stated that MLDE provided the CSGs an opportunity to advance interoperability by carrying out integrated planning and coordination, communications, cross-deck leadership exchanges, a fast-roping exercise and an air defense exercise.
“The opportunity to exercise our interoperability with our Cavour CSG counterparts for a second time in our deployment highlights our strategic advantage inherent to our network of strong alliances,” said Rear Adm. Adan Cruz, commander, CSG 3, in the release. “We have seized every opportunity to fly and sail with our Italian counterparts to deepen our combined operational capacity anywhere in international waters.”.
The Lincoln CSG participants included destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr. (DDG-121), which is serving as the air defense commander as well as destroyers USS O’Kane (DDG-77) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-111). The Cavour CSG includes frigate ITS Alpino (F594) and multipurpose combat ship ITS Raimondo Montecuccoli (P432).
Participating aircraft included MH-60S Knight Hawk and MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, E/A-18G Growlers electronic warfare aircraft, F-35C Lightning II fighters and E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft of the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9 and F-35B Lightning II fighters and AV-8B Harrier II fighters of the Cavour CSG.
Among the activities carried out were a joint live-fire exercise by O’Kane and Raimondo Montecuccoli, a subject-matter exchange and a fast rope drill by the embarked explosive ordnance disposal teams of both CSGs and a complex air-defense exercise involving the tactical aircraft of both CSGs, according to the release.
A Norwegian Armed Forces release said Harry S. Truman CSG is in the waters of Norway and exercises are planned between it and the Norwegian Armed Forces. The release also stated that U.K. aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) will also participate in the exercise and that the training and exercises with the carrier groups are conducted with capabilities in several domains; sea, air, and land. “For security reasons, the Armed Forces do not wish to provide further details about allied operations and exercises in our nearby areas,” concluded the release.
Carrier Prince of Wales is leading the UKCSG in the Royal Navy led exercise Strike Warrior 2024, which takes place from 14-27 October off the coast of Scotland and in the North Sea and serves as the operational certification exercise for the UKCSG’s deployment to the Indo-Pacific next year. In contrast to the U.S. Navy, which designates CSGs after the name of the lead carrier, the U.K. uses the name UK carrier strike group to designate the primary CSG that is operating at high readiness. The current UKCSG consists of carrier Prince of Wales, destroyer HMS Dauntless (D33), frigates HMS Portland (F79) and HMS Iron Duke (F234) and an Astute-class submarine, while fleet oiler RFA Tidespring (A136), which is on its own independent tasking, is supporting the UKCSG.
The U.K. CSG is drilling together in Strike Warrior 2024 with SNMG1, which consists of Norwegian Navy fleet oiler HNoMS Maud (A530) as the flagship, Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida (F334), Belgian Navy frigate BNS Louise-Marie (F931) and Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS Van Amstel (F831). For Strike Warrior, SNMG1 has been augmented with German Navy corvette FGS Magdeburg (F261) and Royal Danish Navy frigates HDMS Niels Juel (F363) and HDMS Absalon (F341).
Currently, Dom Francisco de Almeida is operating together with the Harry S. Truman CSG in the North Sea according, to a social media post by NATO Maritime Command. The Harry S. Truman CSG consists of carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) with embarked CVW 1, cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG-64) and destroyers USS Stout (DDG-55) and USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109).
On Monday, in the U.K., Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) departed its homeport of Portsmouth for routine training, according to a report by British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), the U.K. Armed Forces official media channel.
