HMS Kent joins NATO task group as part of global deployment

HMS Kent will spend time on NATO operations as part of her deployment with the UK’s Carrier Strike Group.

The Portsmouth-based warship is in the first phase of a global mission that will take her and several other Royal Navy ships, including flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth, to the Indo-Pacific region.

It has been a busy few weeks for the anti-submarine frigate since sailing from the UK last month and now Kent will play a critical role in delivering security in the Atlantic by joining Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2).

She will spend the next few weeks as part of the NATO task group following Exercise Steadfast Defender – training which saw the UK’s Carrier Strike Group work with SNMG 1 and 2 to test their abilities to deal with threats from aircraft, other ships and submarines.

HMS Kent is joining NATO as part of the frigate's global Carrier Strike Group deployment

Commander Matt Sykes, Kent’s Commanding Officer, said: “During exercise Steadfast Defender the crew operated in a heightened posture to deal with multiple threat scenarios and have integrated quickly with our allied NATO nations, while continuing to demonstrate the capability of the UK Carrier Strike Group.

“In an unpredictable world, it is more important than ever that we demonstrate our commitment to the NATO alliance to defend ourselves and other European nations against ever more complex threats.”

HMS Kent arrived in the Spanish port of Alicante earlier this week for a short respite for the crew, as well as providing the backdrop for a demonstration of the ship’s capabilities to a number of distinguished guests.

She will leave at the end of the week to undertake exercises with the SNMG2 task group, before re-joining Queen Elizabeth and the CSG task group for the next phase of the deployment.