North Sea:Interlocking Drills Test Norwegian Navy and its NATO Allies - Updated 1 March 2018

For the past few weeks,Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 has been participating in the Royal Norwegian Navy Exercise TG 18-1.Some 14 ships and submarines arrived in Bergen,Norway to initiate TG 18-1 in support of training and qualifying the RNN's new submarine commanders.The drills also aim to sharpen warfighting skills under rugged Nordic wintry conditions.
At the same time,TG 18-1 is being integrated with NATO exercise Dynamic Guard,which emphasises air defence and electronic warfare.The electronic warfare component of the challenge links TG 18-1 to Dynamic Guardian and treats the interception,jamming and emission of radar signals for defensive and deceptive applications.Maritime air defence involves naval helicopters and fixed wing patrol aircraft searching for and destroying enemy submarines.The maritime drills are being staged in the North Sea as well as fjords near Bergen.The 14 vessels include SNMG1'S current flagship,Royal Danish Navy frigate HDMS Niels Juel,and Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS St.John's and the French FREMM multi-mission frigate Provence.Besides Norway,Denmark and Canada,other participating Allies include:France,Germany,Poland,the Netherlands and Spain,plus NATO partner Australia.A total of 5,000 Sailors and 14 frigates have been taking part in the sophisticated tests,such as trying to block a submarine from entering a fjord from the North Sea. *
As well as the warships,helicopters and other aircraft are joining the exercises.The complex multinational drills extend into Dynamic Guard,where interoperability is increased at both the unit-to-unit and the task force level.The conditons have been rough,with seas generating waves of 5-6 meters at times.Nonetheless,the tasks are executed to sustain high interoperability and readiness among the Allies-STRONGER TOGETHER.*
The commander of SNMG1 is Commodore Soren Thinggard Larsen,Royal Danish Navy.He ensures that,as a member of the NATO Reaction Force,SNMG1 trains at a high operational level to meet the very high readiness requirements,always with a view to reaching the capability to respond promptly in times of crisis and conflict.