UK military becomes part of major Middle East exercise

 

The second-largest naval exercise in the world, International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 23, which is taking place around the Middle East, will include the Royal Navy.

UK soldiers will be significantly involved in combating a variety of threats over the course of the next three weeks, such as terrorism, drug trafficking, sea mines, and aerial drone assaults from Cyprus to Kenya, Bahrain, and the Arabian Sea.

All of the Royal Navy's ships stationed in the Gulf are taking part in the drill, together with British dive/bomb disposal teams, Royal Marines boarding and search experts, drone operators, and medical personnel. The RAF is providing aerial support from its base in Akrotiri, Cyprus.

Some 7,500 military personnel from 50 different countries are participating in the three-week US-led exercise, which spans hundreds of miles across the Middle East and Africa.

More than twenty ships, a dozen dive/bomb disposal teams, fifteen planes, twenty-six board and search teams, and more than forty crewless systems working above, on, and beneath the waves will be committed.

The RFA Cardigan Bay will act as a floating testbed for a number of technological experiments that could fundamentally alter naval warfare not only in the Gulf but also globally.

The ship will serve as a testing base for a number of the UK's overseas partners.