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Portsmouth Warships Head For NATO Exercises

Two Portsmouth-based warships leave the city next week to join a multinational exercise in the Adriatic Sea. Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and Type 42 destroyer HMS York will spend three weeks training with a NATO task force.

They will be joined by the Devonport-based HMS Chatham plus Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ship Fort George and warships from the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Turkey and Greece.

Most of the exercise will take place off the coast of Croatia and is designed to test the task group’s integration and reaction to threats from the air, land and sea.

Illustrious will work closely with Spanish aircraft during the deployment. Her Air Warfare Officer, Lieutenant Commander

Phil Dennis, said: “The exercise will enable us to confirm our ability to integrate with and operate alongside our NATO allies in a task force scenario.”

The ships’ busy itinerary includes a goodwill port visit to Split, Croatia.

York leaves the base on Monday (17/9) and Illustrious on Tuesday.