Background
For eight years, 4C Strategies has been working in partnership with the Royal Navy, and particularly the Joint Exercise Training Planning Staff (JTEPS) who, at the direction of the Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) organisation, use Exonaut to help them plan, execute, assess, analyse and exploit collective training not only for the Royal Navy but partner nations as well.
Challenge
Support FOST in the delivery of the multi-national ‘Live’ Exercise Strike Warrior 24 (SW24) comprising UK Aircraft Carrier F-35B Lightning jets, frigates, destroyers, and submarines from the UK, with other warships and submarines from Norway, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium working with aircraft from France, USA, Finland and mixed nationality NATO aircraft.
Solution
Exonaut Collective Training & Exercise Management is a comprehensive solution designed to enhance the planning, execution, and evaluation of collective training exercises, enabling defence forces to achieve high levels of readiness. 4C consultants actively support delivery with Exonaut expertise pre, during and post exercise.
Result
Exonaut was used to manage the exercise schedule, enabling JTEPS to dynamically manage the whole range of training participants. This ability provided assurance to Commanders that the exercise was conducted safely, allowed planning conflicts to be easily deconflicted as they occurred, and enabled the training objectives to be met.
Multi-national live exercise comprising nine nations and NATO
The Royal Navy’s Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) organisation is tasked to take trained individuals, form them into trained units, and then ultimately into a Task Group. Recently, 4C Strategies and FOST worked together to deliver Exercise Strike Warrior 24 (SW24) a multi-national ‘Live’ exercise. SW24 is a complex exercise to assure the UK Carrier Strike Group and it’s 1* Staff embarked on HMS PRINCE of WALES.
The multi-national exercise comprised frigates, destroyers, submarines and F-35B Lightning jets from the UK. Additionally, it included French (maritime patrol a/c (MPA) Atlantique), Norwegian MPA (P8) & Ships, American MPA (P8), German Submarine & Ships, Danish Ships, Finnish F18 fighter jets, Dutch Ships, Belgian Ships, and a NATO multinational crewed E3D Sentry airborne early warning aircraft. The Royal Air Force (RAF) also played a significant role in the exercise, providing aircraft to support anti-submarine operations to test the air defence capabilities of the task group.
UK Carrier Strike Group Readiness
SW24 is another phase in a series of preparations for the global deployment of a UK Carrier Strike Group readiness in 2025. The Task Group’s capabilities are tested ‘Live’ in all weathers and conditions and, in due course, ‘virtually’ to stress Command and Control in a manner otherwise near impossible to replicate in peacetime. Both approaches are critical to enable the UK Carrier Strike Group to operate as required wherever and whenever in an increasingly uncertain world. This issue was highlighted by Commodore Andy Ingham, Royal Navy (COMFOST) when he said:
Virtualising training allows us to conduct training that would otherwise be impractical to do in reality, allowing units to experience a broad range of high-fidelity scenarios. With better data analysis tools and the combination of Live and Virtual training we can take a major step forward into the future of Maritime Operational Training – allowing our sailors to train smarter, learn faster and fight harder.
Exonaut Collective Training and Exercise Management software was used by JTEPS to manage the complex and hectic Live exercise programme. Based within the Exercise Control room in HMNB PORTSMOUTH, the software was utilised to oversee the exercise schedule, allowing JTEPS to efficiently manage a diverse group of training participants in real-time.
This capability assured Commanders that the exercise was conducted safely, allowed scheduling conflicts to be quickly resolved, and ensured all training objectives were achieved. In doing so, Exonaut increased the efficiency of exercise delivery and thus reduced the need for expensive resources such as ships planes, submarines and the 1000s of military personnel involved in the exercise to repeat any element of training, saving precious and expensive resource.
As a former FOST Assessor and JTEPS Planning officer, who proudly served in the Royal Navy it is a privilege to continue to support them and take an active role in strengthening the Navy’s readiness. As an Exonaut consultant I’m pleased to be able to once again take an active role in the planning and management process, enabling Commanders and supporting users to get the most out of the tool, ensuring exercise is delivered safely, effectively and objectively.
Tom Rowley, 4C Maritime Business Development and Sales Manager
Continued Partnership
4C Strategies ongoing partnership with JTEPS and the Royal Navy continues to go from strength to strength with the collected data from Ex SW24 now being analysed and exploited to inform and adjust the scenario development for the upcoming UK CSG 1* staff virtual exercise (VW25), before they deploy in 2025.
