Two of the Royal Navy’s smallest ships are crossing the Channel today to help NATO allies protect key North Sea shipping lanes and underwater infrastructure.
Fast patrol boats HMS Exploit and Blazer will join international minehunters off the Belgian coast for the annual test of NATO’s ability to ensure trade flows freely in and out of major ports… and vital seabed pipelines and data cables remain intact.
Sandy Coast is run by NATO every late summer/early summer, focusing on the North Sea off the shoreline of the Low Countries.
This year, the exercise – which runs from September 2-20 – is concentrated just off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, with participants dealing with coastal security and tackling underwater devices/explosives in shallow waters.
Few places in the North Sea are more than 300ft deep, the waters off the Flanders coastline barely 60-100ft deep.
They are also among the busiest waters in Europe – from traffic passing through the Dover Strait into and out of the North Sea, to Channel ferry traffic, fishing vessels and the approaches to two of the Continent’s major ports: Rotterdam and Antwerp.
In addition, there’s vital undersea infrastructure: North Sea oil/gas pipelines and communications cables carrying masses of data.
So disruption caused by mines and underwater devices would have an impact of global proportions on the economy.
NATO’s Mine Countermeasures Group 1, a German-led force of German, Lithuanian and Canadian warships, form the heart of Sandy Coast, with the Royal Navy vessels playing the ‘bad guys’, trying to break up and disrupt the task group’s activities.
In addition, the two British participants hope to build on work carried out earlier this year using the P2000 class as launchpads for autonomous minehunting systems as the Royal Navy moves away from traditional forms of mine warfare in favor of increasing exploitation of technology.
For the two fast patrol boats, Sandy Coast is also another major international exercise as the Royal Navy’s smallest warships shift focus from a long-standing training role to being used for front-line operations and missions.
This year has already seen the craft support NATO exercises in the Baltic and Arctic, as well as working with our Scandinavian allies and Fleet Air Arm’s Wildcat helicopters to develop tactics for using/fending off fast attack craft.
HMS Exploit and Blazer both took in the Arctic/Norwegian deployment in the late winter/spring. Exploit’s Commanding Officer Lieutenant Cameron Osborn said that experience put both vessels – each crewed by just five sailors – in an excellent position to play an important role in the NATO exercise.
“This is an exciting opportunity for Exploit and Balzer to take part in Belgium’s largest maritime exercise – as well as a notable step forward for the Coastal Forces Squadron in deploying autonomous minehunting equipment with specialists from the Mine Threat Exploitation Group embarked,” he said.
“We are looking forward to testing new methods and procedures as well as working with and developing relationships with our NATO partners.”
Once Sandy Coast is over the two vessels will return to the UK and represent the Senior Service at this year’s Southampton Boat Show.