Naval Placing and Help Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) and U.S. Sixth Fleet (SIXTHFLT) concluded Vigilance Exercise Neptune Strike, the eighth part of NATO’s long-planned Venture Neptune collection of actions, from STRIKFORNATO headquarters in Oeiras, Portugal, October 28. Neptune Strike demonstrated the mixed capability of the Alliance whereas underscoring allied and accomplice nations’ commitments to deterrence and protection of sovereign Alliance territory. This exercise and NATO’s wider technique deters adversaries and terrorist teams from spreading destabilization, widening dysfunction, or accruing decisive navy benefit that may influence allies’ safety. Whereas allied and accomplice plane flew collectively within the skies, the ships of the George H. W. Bush provider strike group (GHWBCSG) sailed alongside a number of allied ships within the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.
“Neptune Strike sits at the vanguard of NATO’s vigilance actions, offering credible deterrence, and demonstrating the inherent flexibility of the provider strike group whereas constructing high-end interchangeability amongst our NATO allies and companions on a agency basis of belief. The vitality throughout your complete Naval Placing and Help Forces NATO workforce was palpable as we pushed the bounds of allied integration within the land, air and on the seas. I couldn’t be extra pleased with the teamwork, experience and professionalism displayed by everybody in making Neptune Strike 22.2 a powerful success. The evolution of Venture Neptune is each a testomony to the innovation of the NATO Alliance and a tangible demonstration that we actually are stronger collectively,” mentioned Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, commander of each SIXTHFLT and STRIKFORNATO.
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“Neptune Strike has once more supplied an ideal alternative to completely combine the fight energy of a U.S. plane provider into enhanced Vigilance Exercise in direct assist of NATO’s dedication to discourage battle and defend allies. It has supplied the prospect to mix capabilities from a lot of nations in all warfare domains – on land, at sea and within the air – as a transparent demonstration of allied unity of objective and cohesion. It has additional rehearsed STRIKFORNATO’s function as the first integrator for U.S. maritime fight energy. The George H.W. Bush Provider Strike Group is now even higher ready to execute advanced missions in live performance with wider allied efforts to defend the Euro-Atlantic space,” mentioned Royal Navy Rear Adm. James Morley, deputy commander, STRIKFORNATO.
“Neptune Strike 2022 is an ideal instance of the transatlantic bond – Europe and North America working collectively in NATO. NATO’s energy helps to forestall any miscalculation by sending a transparent message: NATO will defend and defend each inch of allied territory,” NATO Secretary Basic Jens Stoltenberg mentioned.
All through the two-week lengthy vigilance exercise, NATO servicemembers from a number of allied nations deliberate, briefed, and executed a wide range of particular evolutions, together with air-to-land integration with allies together with Hungary, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland and Slovakia, maritime and interdiction actions, and air-to-air refueling and air-to-air rehearsal occasions all through allied airspace. These included Albanian and Croatian ships, in addition to members of Allied Maritime Command’s Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG) 2 and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group (SNMCMG) 2, and the UK’s Littoral Response Group (LRG). The variety and complexity of evolutions performed throughout Neptune Strike, by a number of domains and distinctive eventualities, continued to validate interoperability of a CSG inside NATO command and management architectures to deal with a quickly evolving safety surroundings. The exercise is proof of the warfighting benefit that characterizes allied interoperability and, in the end, the energy of essentially the most profitable Alliance in historical past.
NATO Secretary Basic Jens Stoltenberg’s go to to the Nimitz-class plane provider USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) on Oct. 25 served as a key spotlight of the exercise. Whereas aboard the ship, Stoltenberg mirrored on the provider’s presence as an illustration of U.S. functionality and dedication to the Alliance, a common escalation of rigidity between European powers, and the way the conclusion of Neptune Strike – and its inclusion of greater than 70 plane, 20 ships, and 5,000 personnel from 26 NATO allies and companions – demonstrates NATO’s functionality on the world stage. Taking part nations in Neptune Strike included Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, U.Ok. and the U.S. Vigilance Actions are day-to-day actions, occurring in all domains and throughout SACEUR’s space of duty, to make sure applicable strategic consciousness and drive readiness required to maintain peace.
STRIKFORNATO, headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal, is Supreme Allied Commander Europe’s (SACEUR) premier, quickly deployable and versatile, maritime energy projection Headquarters, able to planning and executing full spectrum joint maritime operations.
For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has cast strategic relationships with allies and companions, leveraging a basis of shared values to protect safety and stability. Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces within the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of duty. U.S. Sixth Fleet is completely assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces by the complete spectrum of joint and naval operations.
