If you can handle an eel, you can handle a mongoose.
That’s the mantra of the Navy’s premier submarine hunters who have built upon their experiences in Norway by honing skills with NATO allies in the cold grey wastes of the Atlantic.
The suitably named Atlantic Flight from 814 Naval Air Squadron – the Flying Tigers – operated from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers RFA Tidesurge and RFA Tideforce over two months and two exercises: Dynamic Mongoose and Cable Car.The Culdrose-based aircrew and engineers and their Merlin Mk2 joined nine NATO allies for the high-intensity Atlantic exercises involving ships, submarines and aircraft from the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and the United States.
The Flying Tigers found themselves sharing Atlantic skies with a submarine-hunting helicopter of the French Navy as well as Canadian and American P8 maritime and reconnaissance patrol aircraft.
The Merlin Mk2 helicopter crew combined their dipping sonar with sonobuoys to locate and track two different classes of submarines.
Commander Ed Holland, the Flying Tigers’ Commanding Officer, said this year has been exceptionally busy for the squadron, which is supporting front-line frigate operations around the globe (two flights are assigned to the UK Carrier Strike Group, currently in Australia – and has just taken part in Norway’s principal anti-submarine exercise Green Eel.
Dynamic Mongoose is an annual fixture in the NATO calendar, alternating between being hosted by Iceland and Greenland… with the land of fire and ice enjoying the honour in 2025.The focus of this year’s exercise (which doesn’t feature any mongooses, the ‘m’ signifies a maritime exercise in NATO parlance) was protecting the strategically-important maritime ‘choke points’ between Greenland and Iceland, and the wider Iceland-UK gap.
“The importance of operating alongside or allies cannot be overstated,” Commander Holland said. “It strengthens the bond between us and makes sure we remain at high-readiness to counter any threats to our security.“In these latest NATO exercises, we’ve worked with our allies to practise and refine our anti-submarine warfare tactics. It’s designed to push the crews to their limits in a realistic and often challenging environment.“Alongside these important NATO exercises, we’ve also covered our operational commitments in the north Atlantic and to protect UK waters,” he said.
For some of the Royal Navy detachment it was their first time at sea, including air engineer Sub Lieutenant Tom McAllister, who said: “It’s been great to get onboard and see the end effect of all the training I’ve gone through. It’s really rewarding seeing the aircraft flying thanks to all the hard engineering work that goes on behind the scenes.”
Several members of the flight were also inducted by ‘King Neptune’ into the Blue Nose Club – much the same as the traditional naval ceremony for crossing the Equator, but much colder, recognising crossing the Arctic Circle for the first time.