May 04 - RFA Lyme Bay To Call Into Gibraltar Tomorrow
RFA Lyme Bay will make full use of Gibraltar’s Forward Mounting Base facilities when she calls into HM Naval Base tomorrow.
The Bay Class amphibious landing ship has recently completed a two-week UK based Anglo-French Tri-Service exercise on sea, land and air.
Eight warships from the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale took part: Royal Navy flagship HMS Ocean, HMS Bulwark, HMS Sutherland, as well as RFA Lyme Bay and French frigates FS Cassard and La Motte-Picquet, helicopter carrier Dixmude and tanker Var.
Exercise Griffin Strike demonstrated how UK and French maritime, land and air forces can work together for a wide range of operations and, if called upon, unite as part of a NATO, EU or UN coalition.
Captain James Parkin, Commanding Officer of HMS Bulwark, said: “Griffin Strike is an excellent training opportunity and builds on our existing strong links with our French allies.
“Bulwark and Dixmude exercised together only last October and such close co-operation in realistic scenarios is hugely beneficial in maximising our respective military capabilities.”
As well as the warships, Griffin Strike featured 3,500 UK personnel, 2,000 French personnel, 11 UK aircraft – Wildcat from 847 Naval Air Squadron, Apache helicopters from the Army Air Corps and Chinook helicopters from 27 Squadron RAF – and ten French aircraft, including three maritime patrol Atlantique 2.
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