THE WATCH STAFF
The United States, Canada and seven other NATO nations carried out a successful hunt for submarines during joint exercise Dynamic Mongoose, which is held every summer in the Norwegian Sea.
Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom also took part in the June 13-24, 2022, anti-submarine warfare training conducted by NATO’s Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM). The exercise included three submarines, 11 surface ships and 16 maritime patrol aircraft.
“The coordination between ships, submarines and aircraft can be difficult but is the most effective way to detect and track submarines,” Royal Netherlands Navy Commodore A. van de Sande, commander of the participating Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), said in a June 24 MARCOM news release. (Pictured: Surface warships and submarines participate in Dynamic Mongoose on June 19.)
Dynamic Mongoose focused on active tracking — “sending sound waves through the Atlantic depths in the hope of striking a submarine and getting a ‘ping’ back — rather than a passive search, simply listening for a submarine,” according to a June 24 Royal Navy news release.
“Dynamic Mongoose has enabled Group 1 to refine its ability to locate, track and prosecute threat submarines, a threat delivered by three very different types of submarines [two diesel boats and a U.S. nuclear-powered hunter-killer] for the task group to practice its skills against,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tony Kane, the senior warfare officer on the Royal Navy (RN) frigate HMS Portland, one of the surface vessels involved in the hunt, according to the RN news release.
The participation of the Portland showed how NATO, in the words of Adm. Robert Burke, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, has “extremely high-end capable allies and partners with navies that … operate just like the U.S. Navy and operate with us every day.”
Burke made his comments at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, according to a February 8, 2021, story by the Insider news website. The U.K. and France are “two extremely reliable, extremely capable partners,” and Canada and Norway “contribute significantly to the theater undersea warfare fight,” Burke said. Denmark is expanding its capabilities.
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Stephen Mack, commander of NATO submarine forces, coordinated Dynamic Mongoose from MARCOM headquarters in England, where he led a team from the alliance’s 13 submarine nations: Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, U.K. and U.S.
The exercise took place in the GIUK Gap between Iceland and Norway in the northern Atlantic. The name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom with the gap being the two stretches of open ocean between these three landmasses, according to “Forgotten Waters: Minding the GIUK Gap,” a 2017 report from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
“The GIUK Gap forms the principal chokepoint between Russia’s great Northern Fleet [based in the Arctic] and its strategic interests in the North Atlantic and all points south,” the CNAS said. Russian ships must cross the GIUK Gap to reach the Atlantic.
Dynamic Mongoose — one of two large-scale anti-submarine NATO exercises — tests collective abilities in the open and deep waters of the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic. Dynamic Manta, held this year off Sicily, does the same, but in the warmer and more confined Mediterranean. The depth, temperature and ocean salinity have an impact on the effectiveness of sonar, according to a June 16 RN news release.
“Dynamic Mongoose 22 has shown us that the combined efforts of these world-leading anti-submarine warfare capabilities are a force to be reckoned with,” said Lewis Hunter, an HMS Portland underwater warfare specialist, according to the RN news release. “All arms anti-submarine warfare is the new normal as we continue to regain operational advantage in the North Atlantic.”
IMAGE CREDIT: NATO ALLIED MARITIME COMMAND