U.K. Royal Navy and Italian carrier strike groups with other allied ships wrapped up NATO exercise Mediterranean Strike 25 in the Ionian Sea on Sunday. Meanwhile, the French Navy began their major force-on-force exercise, Polaris 25 in the Atlantic.
The NATO Mediterranean Strike 25 began on May 5, in the Ionian Sea and involving nine NATO countries: Canada, France, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Spain, Türkiye, UK and the United States. The exercise included 21 ships, three submarines, 41 fighter aircraft (26 being F-35B fighters), 19 helicopters, 10 maritime patrol aircraft and more than 8,000 personnel.
The U.K. CSG consists of aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) with 18 embarked F-35B fighters, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dauntless (D33), RN frigate HMS Richmond (F239), Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville De Quebec (FFH332), Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen (F311) and fleet oiler HNoMS Maud (A530), Spanish Navy frigate ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104), fleet oilers RFA Tidespring (A136) and RFA Tideforce (A139) and nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Astute (S119). Maud and Tideforce will not follow the UKCSG as it exits the Mediterranean to proceed to the Indo-Pacific. During Mediterranean Strike 25, the UKCSG was also joined by U.S. Navy destroyers USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) and USS Truxtun (DDG-103).
The Cavour CSG consisted of aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (550) with eight embarked F-35B fighters and 5 AV-8B fighters, destroyer ITS Francesco Mimbelli (D561), frigates ITS Carlo Bergamini (F590), ITS Carabiniere (593) and ITS Alpino (594), offshore patrol vessel ITS Comandante Borsini (P 491) and fleet oiler ITS Vulcano (A5335) with Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Bartolomeu Dias (F333) integrated into the Italian CSG for the exercise. Rounding out the participating ships were Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) comprising of Türkiye Navy frigate TCG Kemalreis (F247), Spanish Navy frigate ESPS Álvaro de Bazán and fleet oiler ESPS Patino (A14) and two submarines from NATO countries.
The drills included live firing exercises, air defense exercises, anti-submarine warfare, night flying operations, and defense against drone attacks along with two Italian Navy F-35Bs cross-decking to land and take off from Prince of Wales.
“The interaction between the two CSGs on the one hand constitutes a step forward to what was achieved with the achievement, during the Indo-Pacific campaign, of the Initial Operational Capability to operate with 5th generation aircraft, on the other it will allow us to perfect and strengthen the techniques for countering any type of threat,” said Rear Adm. Giancarlo Ciappina, commander of the Cavour CSG in a release,
On Monday, the French Navy began their Polaris 25 operational readiness exercise, a joint, combined, multi-domain exercise will involve over 3,000 French and foreign military personnel. The exercise includes more than 20 surface ships and over 40 aircraft in the Atlantic and the English Channel, “POLARIS 25 is a large-scale, structuring and federating exercise for the French Navy, based on a combat approach from naval bases to the high seas, under real-life conditions.”, read a French Ministry for the Armed Forces release. Countries joining France in the exercise are Brazil, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States along with Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1).
Polaris made its debut in 2021 while the 2024 iteration was joined together with the Italian Navy’s Mar Aperto fleet exercise with both taking place in the Mediterranean. The Charles De Gaulle CSG which participated in both of the previous exercises, will not be participating in this year’s iteration, having just returned from an Indo-Pacific deployment French Navy Rafale-M fighters and E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEWC) aircraft will participate in the drill along with the French Navy’s Atlantique 2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft. Other air assets include Rafale fighters, Alphajet light attack aircraft, A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), E-3 Sentry AWEC and MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) of the French Air Force and Royal Air Force and U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon MPA.
Among the ships the French Navy will deploy in the exercise are amphibious assault ships FS Tonnerre (L9014) and FS Dixmude (L9015), two FREMM class frigates, a Lafayette class frigate and a nuclear powered attack submarine. Partner nations’ naval units include RN amphibious dock landing ship RFA Lyme Bay (L3007) and amphibious support ship RFA Argus (A135), Spanish Navy amphibious assault ship ESPS Galicia (L51) and frigate ESPS Cristóbal Colón (F105), Italian Navy multipurpose ship ITS Giovanni delle Bande Nere (P434), Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS Van Amstel (F831) and SNMG1 comprising of Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803), French Navy frigate FS Normandie (D 651), Portuguese Navy frigate Bartolomeu Dias and German Navy fleet oiler FGS Rhön (A1443).
Ground units include a French Army amphibious commando group, a Royal Marine Commando battalion, a Spanish Marine Battalion, a Brazilian Marine section, Italian Marines and a U.S. Marine Corps Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO).
The first stage of Polaris 25, taking place from Monday until May 26, will only involve French forces, with the scenario being hybrid attacks against military bases and installations in Brest and Cherbourg and the defense of French naval bases and their approaches. The second phase runs from May 26 to June 15 with May 26 to June 1 seeing the formation of the multinational task force under French leadership, an amphibious demonstration off the U.K. coast from June 1-6, followed by a sea combat period from June 6-11 which pits the amphibious task force against an opposing force and the final stage consisting of an amphibious operation on the Atlantic coast which runs from June 11-15.
