After entering the Mediterranean on 29th April, HMS Prince of Wales and the ships of the CSG arrived off southern Italy to participate in the tail end of NATO exercise Neptune Strike. This has now concluded and the first major exercise of the deployment begins tomorrow.
Exercise Med Strike in runs from 5-11th May in the Ionian Sea and will bring together 21 warships, 3 submarines, 41 fast jets, 19 helicopters, 10 maritime patrol aircraft and over 8,000 personnel from across the NATO.

Med Strike is a rare opportunity for two NATO carrier strike groups to operate in close coordination. The UK CSG is will work alongside the Italian Navy’s ITS Cavour CSG to rehearse a wide range of joint operations, including complex anti-submarine warfare, carrier strike integration and air defence in a congested battlespace. In common with the RN, the Italian Navy operates F-35Bs and this will provide another chance to practice cross-decking the jets to deepen interoperability. This was first tentatively explored during the return leg of the UK CSG deployment in November 2021.

The increasingly impressive Italian Navy recently assembled a large force for 3-week exercise Mare Aperto 2025 run in conjunction with the wider Neptune Strike activity. This included operating F-35s from ITS Cavour and from the LHD, ITS Trieste for the first time.

Alongside the UK and Italy warships from Canada, France, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the United States are also involved in Exercise Med Strike.

Meanwhile it was announced this week that the Pacific Future Forum 2025, will be held on board HMS Prince of Wales while she is alongside in Tokyo, Japan between 29-30th August. This is an international summit dedicated to strengthening defence, security, technology and trading relationships among democratic nations. This is the 7th iteration of the forum, previously the Atlantic Future Forum was hosted by HMS Queen Elizabeth in New York in 2018 and 2022 and in Portsmouth in 2020. The 2021 Pacific Future Forum was held on board HMS Prince of Wales Portsmouth in 2021 as the Tokyo event planned to be held on her sister ship was cancelled due to COVID.

Main image: Helene Synes / Forsvaret