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RN officer’s insight into key NATO ops directing naval task group
26 September 2024
Royal Navy officer Rory Hill is enjoying a glimpse of the future as well as challenging present-day operations with a NATO task group.
He’s serving with a NATO flagship on operations in the waters of northern Europe, dealing with real world issues and challenges from Iceland and the North Atlantic to the Baltic.
The UK doesn’t regularly assign ships to NATO’s two main permanent task forces (Standing Maritime Groups 1 and 2) in favour of committing to larger exercises or providing capital ships as command vessels for task groups.
It does, however, regularly assign personnel to the international staffs who direct the operations and exercises carried out by those groups – 1 in northern European waters, 2 in the Mediterranean – with Lieutenant Commander Rory Hill the latest RN officer assigned.
Earlier this year he joined the small multi-national NATO staff (Danes, Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Poles and Norwegians) under Commodore Bo Overgaard from the Danish Armed Forces onboard the Danish frigate HDMS Iver Huitfeldt.
The Huitfeldt and her two sisters form the basic design/blueprint for the Royal Navy’s forthcoming Type 31 frigates – due in service before the end of the 2020s, led by HMS Venturer.
“It has been great to see what the new ships will be like,” said Rory. “The option to add and remove modular systems such as weapons or sensors is a design allowing flexibility dependent on tasking.
“The ship has been designed for a smaller crew with CCTV across all engineering spaces and remote monitoring of water-tight doors as an example.”
The design is proven under fire in the Red Sea: earlier this year, the Iver Huitfeldt herself engaged - and destroyed – four one-way attack drones with both the main gun and missile system.
Denmark is one of the Royal Navy’s longest-standing and closest allies, with Danish ships regularly undergoing their training for deployments off Plymouth, resulting in many procedures identical/similar to those in the RN, especially when it comes to dealing with fires and flooding. “But we still have our differences,” says Rory.
In the Royal Navy, the lead Senior Rate in the Operations Room is the Ops Room Manager or ORM… a term rejected by the Danes for in their native tongue orm means worm.
It has been great to see what the new ships will be like.
He’s serving with a NATO flagship on operations in the waters of northern Europe, dealing with real world issues and challenges from Iceland and the North Atlantic to the Baltic.
The UK doesn’t regularly assign ships to NATO’s two main permanent task forces (Standing Maritime Groups 1 and 2) in favour of committing to larger exercises or providing capital ships as command vessels for task groups.
It does, however, regularly assign personnel to the international staffs who direct the operations and exercises carried out by those groups – 1 in northern European waters, 2 in the Mediterranean – with Lieutenant Commander Rory Hill the latest RN officer assigned.
Earlier this year he joined the small multi-national NATO staff (Danes, Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Poles and Norwegians) under Commodore Bo Overgaard from the Danish Armed Forces onboard the Danish frigate HDMS Iver Huitfeldt.
The Huitfeldt and her two sisters form the basic design/blueprint for the Royal Navy’s forthcoming Type 31 frigates – due in service before the end of the 2020s, led by HMS Venturer.
“It has been great to see what the new ships will be like,” said Rory. “The option to add and remove modular systems such as weapons or sensors is a design allowing flexibility dependent on tasking.
“The ship has been designed for a smaller crew with CCTV across all engineering spaces and remote monitoring of water-tight doors as an example.”
The design is proven under fire in the Red Sea: earlier this year, the Iver Huitfeldt herself engaged - and destroyed – four one-way attack drones with both the main gun and missile system.
Denmark is one of the Royal Navy’s longest-standing and closest allies, with Danish ships regularly undergoing their training for deployments off Plymouth, resulting in many procedures identical/similar to those in the RN, especially when it comes to dealing with fires and flooding. “But we still have our differences,” says Rory.
In the Royal Navy, the lead Senior Rate in the Operations Room is the Ops Room Manager or ORM… a term rejected by the Danes for in their native tongue orm means worm.