HMS Bulwark deployed For Arabian Sea Mission

UK’s Royal Navy amphibious assault ship, HMS Bulwark has been deployed for a major operation in the Adriatic and Arabian seas.

The warship has spent the last four weeks preparing for the deployment of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a British task force which will consist of forces from Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway. The four week package of trials, training, and tactics was aimed to confirm the HMS’ ability to deploy on time and handling of any type of emergent tasks, UK Defense Journal reported Monday.

The aim of the JEF is to create a UK military framework that focuses its existing as well as upcoming British high readiness capabilities that its partners can join up with.

The items on the agenda were engineering tests, including full power trials for the ship’s power and propulsion system together with tests of all the ships weapons and sensors, to check they can operate at peak hours.

“It is only by firing the weapons and loading the systems in peacetime, that we know that we will be ready, in case they need to be used in wartime.” Petty Officer Dave Furner, one of the Weapon Engineering Technicians on board said.

The ship is now embarking over 250 additional sailors, marines, soldiers and civilians, who will spend the next few months on board and will be returning to the UK in December. The UK will be deploying the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army and Royal Air Force.