Soldiers from 1st The Royal Regiment of Scotland were given unique access to part of the NATO Minehunter fleet during their recent visit to Belfast . The opportunity to see a range of equipment used to clear the seas of mines provided an entirely new insight to soldiers based in Palace Barracks, Holywood. The soldiers were shown on board Polish, Dutch, Estonian and German Minehunters and saw the ROVs, cable cutters and diving equipment key to these specialist operations. The cramped conditions for the crew and the range of specialist tasks required to keep each vessel operational came as a surprise to the visitors – none of whom expressed an interest in transferring to the Navy! Other ships in the group from Latvia , Lithuania , Belgium and Norway hosted visitors from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and the Northern Ireland Office at the same time. The ships form the Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group ONE were visiting Belfast having completed Exercise JOINT WARRIOR – a UK tri-Service multinational exercise which runs twice a year involving numerous warships, aircraft, special operations and land forces in the coast of Scotland. JOINT WARRIOR provides a complex environment in which UK and NATO partners units can go through training together in tactics and skills for use in a combined joint task force. The exercise runs through a range of evolving crises and conflict scenarios that could be realistically encountered in real operations. They include maritime security, disputed territory, anti-terrorism, counter-piracy, combat operations and more. This massive multinational exercise delivers specialized maritime training, bringing together into theatre, air, surface, subsurface and amphibious forces
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:50:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015