Royal Navy releases details on Exercise Joint Warrior

The Royal Navy has set out details of this year's second staging of UK-led Nato exercise Joint Warrior.

The training involving army, navy and air force personnel, is held twice a year around north-west Scotland.

Between 1-12 October, live firing is to be done at a military range at Cape Wrath in Sutherland.

Aircraft from Canada, France, Norway, the UK and US are also to be flown out of RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and HMS Gannet at Prestwick in Ayrshire.

The Royal Navy said naval units from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, UK and US will also be involved.

The exercise will test battlefield and anti-terrorism tactics, also training in anti-smuggling operations and humanitarian missions.

Missile defence

Joint Warrior will overlap with another exercise, Formidable Shield, which began earlier this week and is concentrated on the Hebrides Range in the Western Isles.

Led by the US 6th Fleet, it will test ballistic missile defence capabilities.

Among vessels heading for the Hebrides Range is the Dutch navy's HNLMS De Ruyter.

Its crew is to be tasked with detecting and tracking weapons fired from a US guided missile destroyer.