Posted on 04/09/2010 3:55:29 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
THE Navy’s flagship deployment of 2010 is underway… with the nation’s flagship kicking it off.
HMS Ark Royal departed Portsmouth on a glorious spring morning as the Auriga 2010 deployment to the Eastern Seaboard of North America began.
When the exercise reaches its peak off Florida in July, it will see the carrier joined by HMS Ocean and Albion, plus American assault ship USS Kearsarge (a combination of Ark/Ocean, but twice the size…).
The road to Florida begins in rather chillier climes, however. Ark’s first ‘stomping ground’ on the deployment is the west coast of Scotland and the regular Joint Warrior war games.
The carrier is home to Lynx, Bagger Sea Kings, Merlins and eight Harriers of the Naval Strike Wing for the Scottish exercises, which are aimed at honing the skills of all three Services to work together.
“I googled Benbecula. It’s like a chunk of Dartmoor which has been taken out and dumped off Scotland,” sighed LAET Simon Young of 849 NAS. He misses the trip across the Pond – and hence the best runs ashore – because his partner’s about to give birth.
But for 650 men and women of Ark Royal, plus around 500 aircrew and maintainers of the carrier’s air group, plus the staff of the Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, Cdre Simon Ancona, the next stop after Scotland is North America.
By then, Ark’s task group will have formed up. Joining the carrier will be French submarine FS Perle, destroyer USS Barry, plus more familiar escorts – HM Ships Liverpool and Sutherland and RFA Fort George.
(Excerpt) Read more at navynews.co.uk ...
ping
“destroyer USS Barry”
a fitting ahip to name after the guy...
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