BRITISH FORCES will carry out a series of naval exercises in Cyprus this week in order to demonstrate the Response Force Task Group’s readiness and capabilities.
Seven Royal Navy warships and auxiliaries, Royal Marines and helicopters will meet offshore near the British Sovereign Base Areas for exercise “Cypriot Lion.”
The exercise will include air defence practice and live firing at sea with amphibious exercises in coastal waters involving Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade, and it will be the first major exercise of the RFTG.
UK Task Force commander John Kingwell said: “The Response Force Task Group enables the Royal Navy to respond at short notice to unforeseen events in an unpredictable and fast moving world.”
Three Commando Brigade Royal Marines deputy commander Colonel Haydn White added: “The support of British Forces Cyprus has been invaluable in providing realistic and innovative training scenarios, whether at sea, along the shore, in the harbour and on land”.
Three ships, HMS Albion, HMS Sutherland and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Cardigan Bay, left the UK with elements of the commando force at the beginning of April and were in Cyprus last month for a series of amphibious exercises.
For Exercise Cypriot Lion, they will be joined by a second group of ships – the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, a landing ship, a fast fleet tanker and a supply ship.
The exercise will also include marines from the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps, with whom the UK has a long standing association. Both countries have a history of cooperation in the field of amphibious warfare dating back to the siege of Gibraltar in 1704.
This cooperation was cemented through the creation of a joint UK-Netherlands-Landing Force in 1973.
Speaking about the cooperation between the two countries, Kingwell said: “The involvement of marines from the Netherlands underlines the role that the RFTG can play alongside our international partners in support of wider maritime security and regional stability.”
British Forces Cyprus, through the British High Commission, has informed Republic of Cyprus Authorities of the return of the RFTG and the planned exercises.
RFTG is a new initiative announced in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review and is the heart of the UK’s maritime contingent capability. It highlights the enduring need for the armed forces to plan and train for unforeseen events that may occur.
Having demonstrated its amphibious capabilities in the Mediterranean, the RTFG will carry out further exercises in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.
