HMS Dauntless gears up to join HMS Prince of Wales on deployment by 'intensive training' with Ukraine ships
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Five Ukrainian minehunters are based in Portsmouth and are conducting various drills ahead of future operations
A powerful Royal Navy warship joined forces with Ukrainian minehunters ahead of deploying with an aircraft carrier.
Portsmouth-based destroyer HMS Dauntless trained alongside five Kyiv minehunters for a series of workouts in the eastern Solent, tasked with destroying mines. The Type 45 destroyer is gearing up for the second phase of Operation Firecrest, where she will provide air defence support for HMS Prince of Wales and the UK Carrier Strike Group.
The Royal Navy said the quintet completed “seven days of intensive training, mixing everything from gunnery and blowing up dummy mines to sailing in close formation with a major warship”.
“Spread along the Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight coastlines, the training was the final chapter of a larger exercise intended to refine the military response of Joint Expeditionary Force nations to protect Europe’s northern flank which stretched from August until the weekend, Exercise Lion Protector,” the force added.
“That exercise has seen the UK Commando Force train in the Faroe Islands – the first time Royal Marines have been to the Atlantic chain since World War II – to safeguard the critical Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap.”
The latter stages of the exercise saw allied navies work together in scenarios to protect critical undersea cables and other infrastructure. First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins previously said this was a threat which Russia is starting to exploit, particularly with its strengthening submarine force in the North Atlantic and High North.
Ukrainian vessels - UNS Henichesk, Mariupol, Melitopol, Chernihiv and Cherkasy - have been conducting various drills throughout their time in Portsmouth. Once the war with Russia ends, they’ll be tasked with destroying mines and other explosives in the Black Sea; freeing up merchant shipping lanes for commercial vessels.
Exercise Lion Protector has been the second premier annual exercise for the minehunters, with the ships taking part in Exercise Sea Breeze off the south coast this summer. Gunnery trials took place near Portland, Dorset. Mine-hunting operations honed the skills of the personnel in locating, identifying, and destroying underwater explosives.
The remotely-operated Seafox submersible was used throughout these tests. The crews of two Ukrainian vessels - Chernihiv and Cherkasy - conducted live firings of their Seafox, culminating in the controlled explosions neutralising mine ‘threats’. The quintet then manoeuvred as a small task group, with HMS Dauntless as the major warship.
HMS Prince of Wales is expected to deploy for the second phase of Operation Firecrest later this year, with her maintenance period coming to an end.