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Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent Working With French Navy Carrier Strike Group

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Naval Forces News - France, UK
 
 
 
Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent Working With French Navy Carrier Strike Group
 
As we reported in January, the Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent has assumed a vital role protecting the French carrier strike group’s mission in the Middle East. Ushering in a new era of British and French military cooperation, HMS Kent has taken up the role of anti submarine warfare commander for the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, making her responsible for protecting the carrier group from underwater threats.
     
As we reported in January, the Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent has assumed a vital role protecting the French carrier strike group’s mission in the Middle East. Ushering in a new era of British and French military cooperation, HMS Kent has taken up the role of anti submarine warfare commander for the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, making her responsible for protecting the carrier group from underwater threats.
The French Navy's Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group. Picture: Royal Navy
     
Kent will also provide general maritime security using her Lynx helicopter as the “eyes” and her advanced radar systems as her “ears”.

Having joined the group she has already taken part in White Shark – a three-day exercise with the Saudi Naval and Air Forces – where the threats came from below, on and above the waves. Before joining the French, HMS Kent also worked with the US Navy’s USS Carl Vinson.

Kent’s Commanding Officer Commander Andrew Block said he and his 200 men and women felt at home as the frigate slipped seamlessly into the French task force.

“As the Royal Navy starts to get back into the fixed-wing carrier strike business, HMS Kent has demonstrated that we bring a sharp edge to task group operations as we integrate into our second carrier strike group in as many months,” he said.
     
As we reported in January, the Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate HMS Kent has assumed a vital role protecting the French carrier strike group’s mission in the Middle East. Ushering in a new era of British and French military cooperation, HMS Kent has taken up the role of anti submarine warfare commander for the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, making her responsible for protecting the carrier group from underwater threats.
HMS Kent has taken up the role of anti submarine warfare commander for the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle. Picture: Royal Navy
     
The Portsmouth based frigate was waiting in the Red Sea as the Charles de Gaulle group sailed through Suez from the Mediterranean. The link-up between the two navies is the latest in a series of exercises and joint deployments since the turn of the decade with the goal of creating an Anglo-French expeditionary force next year.

Cdr Block added: “The UK and France share common defence and security interests, not to mention the two most capable armed forces in Europe. It is therefore a real honour for my ship’s company to be part of the first joint naval task force operations in the Gulf.”

By working with the carrier group Kent will hone the necessary skills needed when the Queen Elizabeth class carriers deploy in the coming decades.

Commodore Keith Blount OBE Royal Navy, the Bahrain-based UK Maritime Component Commander for the Middle East, said: “The integration of HMS Kent into the Charles De Gaulle carrier strike group marks a new chapter in a deepening bilateral relationship, building on already-close links between the UK and France.

"This is the longest and most important role the UK has taken on as part of a French-led carrier task group and an important milestone towards generating the bilateral carrier capability agreed by the Prime Minister and French President at Lancaster House in 2011.

“For the Royal Navy, the experience gained here will be of the utmost importance in generating a UK carrier strike group when HMS Queen Elizabeth enters service.”