Some of the stand-out moments of a military career can come when you find yourself deeply embedded in a service that’s not your own
Master Aircrew Mark Whalley’s 30 years with the RAF span the collapse of the Cold War, the rise of Russia’s military menace and peace-keeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in the front rank of his memories is a fortnight spent at sea in May this year on the Italian Navy’s flagship, ITS Cavour.
He was observing Exercise Med Strike as an RAF member of JTEPS – the Joint Training Exercise and Planning Staff, part of the Navy’s Fleet Operational Standards and Training team – which has given him a grandstand view of five of the UK’s twice-yearly maritime exercises. But this was special.
“This was just before HMS Prince of Wales, our own flagship aircraft carrier, set off on her current Far East deployment,” says Mark.
“Normally we’re based on land as each exercise progresses, monitoring, co-ordinating and enabling as participants iron out their challenges and learn from what’s going on. But for Med Strike our team was invited to base itself on the Italian flagship. As the exercise ended, I’ll never forget standing on the bridge and, in the air in front of me, watching various helicopters fly in formation,” says Mark. “It was spectacular.
“Our team carries an immense responsibility – first, for all the personnel we invite to take part, and then for the unimaginable cost of the hardware we ask each nation to contribute to an exercise.”
The flyaway cost of one F-35 alone is upwards of £70m, and with 21 warships, three submarines, 41 fast jets and over 8,000 personnel from Italy and the UK involved in Med Strike, it’s easy to imagine why Mark and his colleagues would have taken a breath of relief when PHOTOEX (photo exercise) day came.
PHOTOEX is the part of each exercise when everyone comes together for the team picture. But these are out-of-this world team line-ups, perfectly spaced parades of warships and aircraft set over several square miles of sparkling sea, their manoeuvring precision illustrated by flawlessly interwoven wakes. They aren’t merely pretty pictures.
“As they form up, you begin to get a real sense of how much effort has gone into bringing this exercise together and how all the nations involved have played their part, and good training has been achieved,” says Mark.
“When I first joined the team, I thought these images were simply for the record. But they are a serious matter, very much part of the overall aim of each exercise. NATO is messaging its collaboration and preparedness to the world: ‘This is what we can bring together – don’t imagine we aren’t ready’.
“In the last five years, in response to that now very real threat from the east, these exercises have moved away from being mostly maritime-focused to being much more collaborative between all the military disciplines.
“Our next Joint Warrior exercise will again be in Norway – and that highly collaborative focus will remain at the centre of whatever we decide to do,” he says.
