Tiny Royal Navy Portsmouth ships battle against "formidable opponent" in fast "heavily armed" Swedish boats

Four of the force’s smallest ships were pitched against a formidable foe as the last act of their two-month mission. HMS Puncher, Express, Pursuer and Dasher - based in Portsmouth and Plymouth - have been pushing themselves on various drills since August, joining forces with Nato allies and members of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

This work culminated in Exercise Tarassis, the largest military exercise organised by the coalition which tests forces on land, sea, and in the air. It included amphibious landings by commandos on Norway’s Arctic coast to Royal Marines on the ground in Estonia.

Royal Navy sailors in the Coastal Forces Squadron were deployed to Berga Naval Base, 17 miles south of Stockholm, to face off against Swedish fast boats. Smaller than a P2000 (54 rather than 68ft long), half the weight, fast (up to 40 knots powered along by twin jets) and extremely manoeuvrable, the Combat Boat or CB90 requires just three crew (to five on a P2000). Operated by the marines of the Swedish Amphibious Corps, it was specifically designed for the archipelagos which stretch along the Swedish coast.

The Royal Navy described these “heavily-armed” vessels as a “formidable opponent”, give that they were exercising on their native waters. All four P2000 ships jostled for position as they had to battle through a CB90 ‘ring of steel’ and ‘attack’ a high-value vessel. The Swedish craft are equipped with machine-guns, automated cannon, grenade launchers, even mines or depth charges.

Sign up for a weekly briefing on the defence sector’s biggest stories with our free newsletter, The Week in Defence with Freddie Webb

Despite these armaments at their disposal, the use of non-lethal force was a valuable lesson for the British sailors working with them. Lieutenant Keaton Leyland-Jones, Commanding Officer of HMS Puncher, said: “Fallex was the fifth and final exercise as part of our deployment, which has allowed us to develop the coastal warfare concept and learn from the Baltic states, particularly their patrol and harbour protection expertise.”

The Coastal Forces Squadron’s Commanding Officer, Commander Mark Hayes, is delighted by the growing P2000’s growing versatility on front-line operations. He added: “Tarassis represents the fourth overseas deployment for four or more units from the Coastal Forces Squadron this year. It has allowed unparalleled integration with our Joint Expeditionary Force partners. Focussing on harbour defence, P2000s have again proved that they are a capable element as part of a larger joint response option.”

Ahead of Fallex, the British quartet were in Finnish waters working with the other new member of NATO. The vessels conducted combined training with missile boat FNS Hamina, focused largely on joint communications and getting used to the two navies’ ways of working, before the Brits spent a few days sampling the delights of Helsinki.

Speaking about working with the Finns, Lieutenant Jack Mason, Dasher’s Commanding Officer, said: “The communication between us has been great and everything has worked like clockwork. I have absolutely no doubt that if the call came for us to work together, we’d be able to do so, really quite easily.”