The battle of the North Atlantic: Royal Navy squares up against forces from ten countries for the biggest military exercise in Europe

PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 3 November 2012 | UPDATED: 17:00 EST, 3 November 2012

The battle, involving 26 fast jets, 24 ships, two submarines and 4,500 personnel, took place last month off the coast of Scotland. As Britain went to war with the U.S., Germany, France and seven other nations, Andrew Preston watched it unfold

A machine gunner on one of the bridge wings of HMS Kent prepares to open fire on enemy fast attack boats. In the distance are three Navy minehunters

An urgent message blares out on the bridge of HMS Kent: ‘Five contacts inbound, suspect RIBs not conforming to patterns of life. Surface threat warning now red.’

The boats have shown up on the ship’s radar three decks down in the ops room. They’re in an arrow formation, and they’re heading straight for us.

The frigate is at action stations, with the ship’s company prepared in their anti-flash hoods and gloves.

A radio message goes out for the boats to identify themselves. They don’t respond.

Then a gun is spotted on board one of them and warning shots are fired from a machine gun on the starboard bridge wing.

One deck down, the ship’s 30mm cannons start to twitch, ready to lock on to any potential target.

When they keep coming, the order is given to ‘engage contacts when in range’.

Moments later, the crackle of gunfire shatters the early-morning calm.

Commander Ben Ripley and fellow officers in the ops room give the orders to fire the ship's 4.5in gun

The Royal Navy Type 23 frigate is escorting a convoy of four minehunters as it makes its way up a narrow inlet.

Offering protection on the other flank is the imposing USS Gettysburg, from the U.S. Atlantic fleet.

Criss-crossing a few hundred feet above is a Seahawk helicopter on patrol from the back of the American guided-missile cruiser.

As if this scene weren’t unnerving enough for the few bleary-eyed passengers on the first ferry puttering across the Kilbrannan Sound from the Isle of Arran to the Scottish mainland, two low-flying German Air Force Tornado bombers then roar overhead.

The machine-gun shots were just the first fired in what quickly escalated into an all-out war last month off the west coast of Scotland.

It was fought on and under the sea, in the air and on land, and involved 24 ships, two submarines and 40 aircraft (including 26 fast jets) as well as land forces.

Flight Commander Ian Farr looks on as a U.S. Seahawk piloted by Doyle P Flannery III lands on the flight deck of HMS Kent

Over 4,500 military personnel from 11 countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and the U.S., were caught up in the battle, yet it didn’t even make the news.

The only responses were a few local complaints about noise and occasional GPS jamming (which it was claimed affected internet, mobile-phone and satellite-TV coverage).

This is Exercise Joint Warrior, the biggest military exercise in Europe and one of the most complicated in the world.

It’s run twice a year, at a cost of £7 million a go, with a fortnight of war games choreographed by tactical-planning staff at Faslane naval base.

They are the puppet masters, the scriptwriters and directors creating scenarios and, when necessary, provoking conflict.

This time, as well as fast boat attacks (good practice for possible encounters at choke points such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Aden), there are enemy jets in the skies, suspect vessels to board, lurking submarines, suspicious low-flying civil aircraft and mines to be cleared.

HMS Kent's 4.5in gun bombards Cape Wrath (this type of gun, with its angular, stealth design, is nicknamed Kryten after the Red Dwarf character)

To add to the confusion, there are also pirates, smugglers and terrorists – those having blanks fired at them as they attack the convoy off the coast of Arran are actually Marines and local boatmen who’ve come out for the thrill of pretending to attack a warship.

Captain Phil Titterton, who directs Joint Warrior, says it offers ‘everything from rescuing fishermen captured by pirates to out-and-out warfare’.

The idea is for the various national forces to practise working together – or, as the military put it, ‘test and improve their interoperability’.

Soon these ships could face a very real threat – HMS Kent is preparing for a six-month operational deployment next year.

When thrown together, the closest of allies have an inevitable fascination with each other’s idiosyncrasies.

On board the Gettysburg

The Americans ‘just love’ the accent of the well-spoken officer from HMS Kent who liaises with them over the radio during the fast boat attack.

‘At least the terrorists know they’ll be going to war with the Queen,’ jokes a U.S. officer.

After a helicopter from the USS Gettysburg lands on HMS Kent, the American pilot steps onto the flight deck booming ‘Doyle P Flannery the Third’ as he thrusts out his hand.

High-explosive shells, weighing 48kg, come up from the deep magazine and are manually lifted and loaded onto a feed ring

‘Hi, I’m Ian,’ replies Kent’s unassuming Flight Commander, Lieutenant Ian Farr.

News soon spreads that the USS Gettysburg really does have a constant supply of cookies on the bridge, a machine for hazelnut-flavoured coffee and cereal bars and snacks constantly available – you don’t get that on the UK’s £2.44 per person per day for food.

But otherwise the American food is deemed a huge let-down – pre-prepared and served on disposable paper plates, unlike the Saturday-night steak, Sunday roast and curries served on proper plates on British ships.

There are also wry smiles at the Americans’ apparent nervousness at navigating the narrow sea channels around the Scottish islands.

At night they prefer to head out into the wide Atlantic swell, even though it’s rough.

‘They’re more used to being out in what we call the blue water,’ says Kent’s commanding officer Commander Ben Ripley, ‘but that explains why they’re here, as their focus is shifting towards the littoral (the area close to the shore).

'Doing fast-attack-craft swarm exercises, air defence and so on in this environment – where they haven’t got just clear blue ocean all the way round and there are mountains that can mask things – will be of massive value.’

To be fair, it also seems that if a U.S. captain has an accident with his ship there are no second chances – it’s goodbye to a career in the navy.

This is only an exercise and most of the fighting is done by computer simulation.

Commander Ripley scans the horizon on the bridge of HMS Kent in an anti-flash protection suit

But the gunnery practice is very real as HMS Kent pounds the peat bogs of Cape Wrath in the far north-west of Scotland with high-explosive and star-shell illumination rounds from her 4.5in gun.

‘Command approved. 4.5 engage.’

Inside the ops room there’s a dull thud as a shell is fired 12 miles towards the MoD bombing range.

Standing up on a bridge wing, the shock of each shell thumps you in the chest, before you’re hit by the smoke and the foul smell of cordite.

The gun has just been upgraded, and it’s not long before it begins to stall, with a sensor inside becoming misaligned. It’s not the only challenge the crew face.

Communications systems fail, while out on the bridge wings one of the machine guns jams.

This is on top of the routine problems, such as a failed motor in the radar on the upper deck having to be removed in the middle of the night for repair while the ship is ploughing through 12ft high waves.

High-explosive shells ready to be fed into HMS Kent's 4.5in gun

‘It was like trying to undo a bolt with your head out the window going down the motorway,’ says the engineer who drew the short straw.

The ship recently underwent a £24 million refit, including upgrades to her weapons systems as well as the installation of state-of-the-art sonar equipment to maintain her anti-submarine role.

The money only goes so far – the only change in comfort for the crew was the addition of 240-volt sockets by each of their bunks.

As the exercise continues, Kent is diverted to support HMS Ambush, the second of the new Astute-class nuclear submarines costing over £1 billion each, as she makes her first ever dive at sea.

These are nervous moments. It’s two years since her sister vessel HMS Astute ran aground off Skye, an incident which saw the officer in charge relieved of his command.

The gunnery practice is very real as HMS Kent pounds the peat bogs of Cape Wrath in the far north-west of Scotland with high-explosive and star-shell illumination rounds from her 4.5in gun

Also, as Kent sails away from the Isle of Arran, she passes over the wreck of a WWII submarine, HMS Vandal.

In 1943 the submarine was lost with all hands just four days after being commissioned.

Kent will patrol near Ambush in case anything goes wrong, and also to very politely ask fishing vessels, ferries and survey ships to steer clear for safety’s sake.

There’s a blast from Ambush’s rear ballast tanks like a spout from a giant whale as the stern of the submarine starts to go down.

The bow then follows suit and, once level, she slowly drifts from view until finally the masts disappear.

Today she’s helping, but in a couple of days HMS Kent will be a target as she hunts and is hunted by a Norwegian diesel submarine as if for real. It’s back to the game…

HMS Kent from the ship's Merlin helicopter. The ship recently underwent a £24 million refit, including upgrades to her weapons systems

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