U.S. Navy plane provider USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) joined NATO allies within the North Sea this week for the third iteration of Neptune Strike 2025.
NATO will take management of the Gerald R. Ford Service Strike Group (CSG) throughout the enhanced vigilance exercise, which started Monday and runs till Friday. The CSG beforehand participated within the second iteration that was held within the Mediterranean Sea from July 24-Aug. 1.
“The Neptune Strike collection is designed to reveal NATO’s capacity to combine high-end maritime strike capabilities, strengthen deterrence and guarantee freedom of navigation throughout essential waterways. It additionally goals to safe strategic maritime chokepoints whereas testing interoperability throughout air, land and sea,” reads a NATO information launch revealed final week.
Neptune Strike 25-3 is led by Naval Hanging and Assist Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO), headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal, underneath U.S. Vice Adm. Jeffrey Anderson. The big-scale multinational train will span the Mediterranean, Adriatic, North and Baltic seas with greater than 10,000 sailors, troopers, aviators and marines from 13 NATO nations. Collaborating nations embrace Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Sweden, the UK and the USA, in response to the discharge.
The forces will rehearse carrier-based air missions, amphibious landings in southern Italy, submarine patrols, floor warfare and a mass casualty drill all through the train. The Gerald R. Ford CSG will function within the North Sea, whereas multinational job teams will conduct joint missions within the Baltic and Mediterranean.
Among the many ships collaborating are plane provider Gerald R. Ford, command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20), Turkish Navy amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu (L-400) and Italian Navy amphibious transport dock ITS San Giorgio (L9892), in addition to unidentified destroyers, frigates, submarines and plane from taking part nations.
“The Neptune Strike collection underscores NATO’s capacity to combine multinational naval and strike forces quickly, even over lengthy distances. These actions are long-planned, defensive in nature, and totally compliant with worldwide legislation,” reads the NATO information launch.
In keeping with a NATO explainer on Neptune Strike, the train primarily prepares NATO to make use of and combine the high-end maritime strike capabilities of its nations, enabling their consideration and utilization to discourage threats to the alliance and likewise prepares contributing nations to work with NATO instructions. The train, the explainer stated, will present frameworks for future nationwide and multinational maritime integrations to NATO.
“[Neptune Strike] is a transparent expression of NATO’s dedication to readiness, which reinforces and promotes peace and regional safety and stability,” reads the explainer.
The Gerald R. Ford CSG contains plane provider Gerald R. Ford with embarked Service Air Wing (CVW) 8 and destroyers USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) and USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) with Winston S. Churchill within the position of air protection commander. A Pentagon imagery launch confirmed Gerald R. Ford, Winston S. Churchill and Mahan working collectively within the North Sea on Wednesday with Royal Danish Navy frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F363) and French Navy frigate FS Bretagne (D655).
At some point prior, on Tuesday, Gerald R. Ford’s embarked Helicopter Sea Fight Squadron (HSC) 9 – the “Tridents” – performed fight search and rescue (CSAR) coaching with the Royal Danish Air Pressure (RDAF) close to Air Base Karup, Denmark. In keeping with a Danish Armed Forces information launch, CVW-8 will fly air missions, together with joint fighter coaching, over Denmark with RDAF F-16 Falcon and F-35A Lightning II fighters.
Additionally on Tuesday, Winston S. Churchill performed helicopter go to, board, search and seizure coaching (HVBSS) coaching with Bretagne. The French frigate’s embarked NH-90 helicopters landed on Winston S. Churchill with a boarding workforce to hold out the drill whereas Mahan drilled on small boat operations the identical day.
Bainbridge, in the meantime, is working within the Baltic Sea, in response to a Pentagon imagery launch that confirmed the destroyer working Monday alongside German Navy frigate FGS Hamburg (F220) and the Swedish Navy corvette HSwMS Helsingborg (K32).
A Finnish Navy information launch stated forces will perform joint fires from sea and air items within the Baltic Sea as a part of Neptune Strike 25.3. The discharge didn’t disclose the Finnish Navy ships that can take part within the train.
Moreover, the Turkish Ministry of Protection disclosed that its navy will deploy a job group that features Anadolu, frigates TCG Gokova (F496) and TCG Gokçeada (F494) – that are the ex-USS Samuel Eliot Morison (FFG-13) and ex-USS Mahlon S. Tisdale (FFG-27) respectively – and submarine TCG B. Inonu (S360).
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