NATO has launched NEPTUNE STRIKE 25-3, running from 22 to 26 September 2025. The large-scale multinational enhanced Vigilance Activity will span the Mediterranean, Adriatic, North, and Baltic Seas, bringing together more than 10,000 sailors, soldiers, aviators, and marines from 13 Allied nations.
The Neptune Strike series is designed to demonstrate NATO’s ability to integrate high-end maritime strike capabilities, strengthen deterrence, and ensure freedom of navigation across critical waterways. It also aims to secure strategic maritime chokepoints while testing interoperability across air, land and sea. This iteration follows NEPTUNE STRIKE 25-2, which took place from 24 July to 1 August.
Led by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO), headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal under U.S. Vice Adm. Jeffrey T. Anderson, NEPTUNE STRIKE 25-3 will see NATO take operational control of a Carrier Strike Group alongside multiple allied naval and amphibious assets.
Among the participating forces are the U.S. Aircraft Carrier USS GERALD R. FORD, the Turkish Amphibious Assault Ship TCG ANADOLU, the Italian Landing Ship ITS SAN GIORGIO, and the U.S. command-and-control ship USS MOUNT WHITNEY. They will be joined by destroyers, frigates, submarines, and aircraft from across the Alliance, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Türkiye, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Operations will include carrier-based air missions, amphibious landings in southern Italy, submarine patrols, surface warfare, and a mass casualty drill. Notably, the GERALD R. FORD Carrier Strike Group will operate in the North Sea, while multinational task groups will conduct joint missions in the Baltic and Mediterranean.
As part of Project Neptune, which was originally conceived in 2020, the Neptune Strike series underscores NATO’s ability to integrate multinational naval and strike forces rapidly, even over long distances. These activities are long-planned, defensive in nature, and fully compliant with international law.