Fighting in the fjords as Wildcats hunt down attack boats before they can strike

Royal Navy helicopters and fast-attack craft are heading for the fjords of Norway for the next three weeks to prepare for the UK's key deployment of 2025 with the Norwegian navy.

They will be training with the frigate HNoMS Otto Sverdrup and the tanker HNoMS Maud to help both navies integrate before they work together during the inaugural deployment of Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales.

Following Exercise Tamber Shield 25, the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier will set sail in the spring on an eight-month mission to the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Pacific Rim.

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The vessel will be supported by British and Nato warships, including Norwegian, as part of a strike group to maintain global security.

"Previous iterations of Tamber Shield laid the foundations with our Norwegian allies, rehearsing Maritime Strike tactics using the Wildcat's Martlet missile in Norway's congested archipelago," said Lieutenant Commander Oliver Brooksbank, who oversees the Wildcat detachment.

"This year builds on those foundations and aims to ensure readiness to deploy alongside on operations in some of the most contested waters in the world, in the defence of the UK Carrier Strike Group."

During Exercise Tamber Shield 25, more than 150 UK personnel will deal with mock torpedo and missile attacks – including torpedo drops – with British and Norwegian fast boats charging around the fjords trying to "damage" the frigate and tanker, aided or thwarted by the Wildcats.

The exercise has been run twice before, with the emphasis on training helicopter crews in the art of fending off small and fast British and Norwegian boats in the fjords around Bergen.

"Exercise Tamber Shield is an exceptional arena for advanced integration training between the Royal Navy and the Royal Norwegian Navy," said Commodore Kyrre Haugen, Norway's Chief of the Naval Fleet.

"It also gives us the opportunity to do the last preparations for the upcoming carrier strike group deployment.

"Tamber Shield clearly demonstrates the unique relationship between our navies." 

As well as Norwegian ships taking their place in the carrier deployment line-up, a Wildcat helicopter from 815 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton will be operating from the frigate Roald Amundsen throughout.