ABOARD THE FRENCH FRIGATE NORMANDIE — Giant NATO drills within the frigid fjords of northern Norway could also be simply warfare video games meant to hone the preventing expertise of the newly expanded 32-nation army alliance. However for troops collaborating, they’re very actual.
And that’s the entire level.
With drills underway now, NATO is baring its fangs in its largest workout routines for the reason that Chilly Conflict, sending an unmistakable message to Russia that alliance members are able to defend one another if wanted.
Having watched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third 12 months, the NATO coaching goals to cowl all eventualities. That may embrace attempting to catch troops off guard.
This week, crew members aboard the French frigate Normandie, one in every of France’s most fashionable warships, had been roused from sleep and scrambled to seek out and kill a submarine that snuck into chilly Norwegian waters.
The submarine belongs to Germany, additionally a NATO member. However for the aim of the warfare video games dubbed Nordic Response 2024, it was appearing as an enemy vessel.
The Normandie crew noticed its periscope poking via the waves and sprang into motion. The submarine had already “attacked” a close-by Italian ship, the plane provider Giuseppe Garibaldi, scoring an imaginary torpedo hit.
The crew had been decided to not let Normandie — a top-of-the-line vessel, in service solely since 2020 — endure the indignity of additionally being struck.
An pressing 7 a.m. name bought Normandie’s commander, Capt. Thomas Vuong, up from his bunk. He ordered the frigate’s submarine-hunting helicopter to be readied for flight, waking its pilot.
“We noticed its assault periscope,” Vuong instructed The Related Press on board Normandie in an unique interview.
“Then it dived once more,” he stated. “We had been requested to hunt for it. We succeeded.”
As soon as airborne, the Normandie’s NH90 helicopter hovered over the waves and lowered its submarine-detecting sonar into the ocean. The frigate additionally used its sonar, and collectively, they zeroed in on the sub’s place and “attacked” it in flip.
“Intelligence confirmed to us that there have been no pleasant submarines within the sector, so we had been sure that it was an enemy submarine,” the helicopter pilot, Lt. Olivier, recounted. The French navy withheld his household title for safety causes.
“So the frigate was capable of hearth a torpedo and destroy the submarine,” he added — however not for actual, after all.
The frigate and its helicopter pinpointed the submarine with adequate accuracy to ensure that it would not have survived had precise torpedoes been fired.
The Normandie crew of 146 mariners bought no advance warning of the German sub “assault,” to check their readiness within the inhospitable atmosphere above the Artic Circle, Vuong stated.
As of this week, NATO nations now additionally embrace Sweden. It formally joined on Thursday because the thirty second member, ending many years of post-World Conflict II neutrality. Finland had already joined NATO in April 2023 in a historic transfer after many years of its army non-alignment.
In each international locations, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine triggered a dramatic shift in public opinion, resulting in their Could 2022 purposes to hitch NATO.
The Nordic drill within the northern areas of Finland, Norway and Sweden entails greater than 20,000 troopers from 13 nations and kicked off on Monday. It’s a part of wider workout routines known as Steadfast Defender 24. They’re NATO’s largest in many years, with as much as 90,000 troops concerned over a number of months. They’re geared toward displaying the alliance can defend all of its territory as much as its borders with Russia.
German submariners are extra acquainted than Normandie with Norway’s deep and slim fjords and the chilly Arctic waters that may complicate submarine detection, Vuong stated.
The drill was “extraordinarily helpful, as a result of we attain a really excessive diploma of realism and so we higher put together our groups,” he stated. “The fjords are a particular atmosphere, with a temperature profile totally different to what we all know within the Atlantic.”
“To have the ability to prepare our groups right here, in opposition to this menace, is extraordinarily useful and very stimulating,” he added. “That is their taking part in discipline. In order that they know the hiding locations.”