UK to deploy a group of patrol vessels in the Arctic

The United Kingdom will deploy Archer patrol vessels of the Littoral Combatant Squadron to the Arctic as part of a NATO exercise.

The Royal Navy announced this in a press release.

The high-speed patrol vessels will spend several months above the Arctic Circle, supporting NATO forces, including the Royal Marines, in the annual winter exercise Joint Viking.

“This unforgiving environment provides a unique opportunity for the team and the whole crew to push ourselves and our kit and develop the way we operate. Operating in the High North always brings unique engineering challenges, and we’re excited to see what this year brings,” CPO Nicholas Brooks, Marine Engineer Officer of HMS Puncher, stated.

Traditionally, boats from the Coastal Forces Squadron have detained offenders in UK coastal waters and provided training for university students.

However, in recent years, the paradigm of their use has changed. The unit now specializes in operations using small, fast boats. They support exercises and missions of the British and NATO navies in northwestern Europe.

In particular, in 2021, six Archer-class boats simulated an attack by Iranian speedboats on the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its strike group. In 2024, two boats participated in the Baltops exercise, during which they deployed mine countermeasures specialists and underwater drones.

Designed to operate relatively close to shore, with a limited range and basic living quarters on board, the four vessels – HMS Blazer, Charger, Puncher, and Trumpeter, each crewed by five sailors apiece – depart Portsmouth in early February. They will make 13 stops in ports in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Norway before reaching the northern port of Harstad, which will act as the hub for their participation in the NATO training.

Once there, the craft will be used by Royal Navy dive teams and mine warfare experts to conduct covert surveys of the fjords, insert raiding parties, gather intelligence around Norway’s Troms county, and ‘threaten’ other NATO warships by playing ‘enemy’ forces.

“The fjords of Norway are a harsh yet stunning environment – in the sub-zero climate, units will be challenged mentally and physically to maintain capability and provide operationally effective training to NATO,” Lieutenant Lara Martin, in command of HMS Charger, shared.

In December 2024, the Royal Navy started testing the Apollo unmanned sea mine hunter in Scotland.

The presented drone is a small autonomous boat-sized vessel that can be deployed from a larger ship. Its main task is to scan the seabed to detect various types of mines.