Royal Navy's £3.1bn supercarrier leads huge Nato armada in war game to defend 'Europe's northern flank from modern adversary'

The mighty aircraft carrier, which is currently serving as Nato’s command ship, has sailed north to Norway for Exercise Cold Response 2022, a month-long test of allied forces which will see 30,000 troops from 27 nations operate together.

During Exercise Cold Response the Portsmouth-based leviathan, and the armada she is leading, will be practising how they would react to defend ‘Norway and Europe’s northern flank from a modern adversary,’ the Royal Navy said.

Norway shares a border with Russia, but officials said the test was not linked to its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow declined to send observers.

The war game, which takes place every other year and planning for which began in December 2020, will involve more than twice as many personnel as the 14,000 planned for in Exercise Cold Response 2020.

During the weekend, a task force of 25 ships from 11 nations gathered close to Norway at the start of the training, including six Royal Navy ships and more than 2,000 UK military personnel.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: ‘The Arctic is becoming an area of increasing military competition and the security of the region is directly linked to our national security.

‘Exercise Cold Response is a demonstration of Nato’s ability to both operate and compete in one of the harshest environments in the world and is demonstration of how a multinational force would defend Europe’s northern flank.’

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The exercise comes as Ukraine continues its battle to resist Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion force.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky offered to keep his country out of Nato yesterday as his spokesman warned peace talks were 'at a crossroads'.

The embattled leader made a fresh appeal to Nato leaders to impose a no-fly zone over his war-torn country, telling Western leaders gathered in London Russia had bombed four apartment blocks in Kyiv, leaving dozens dead.

In a video address, he also took a swipe at Nato over its refusal to intervene militarily, saying it was 'the strongest alliance in the world' but 'some of the members of this alliance are hypnotised by Russian aggression'.

On the way to the naval drill, the £3.1bn behemoth took part in an air defence exercises in the North Sea alongside four of the UK’s F-35B Lightning jets from 617 Squadron, the Dambusters.

The jets from RAF Marham took part in an air battle exercise, which was orchestrated by two Royal Navy fighter controllers on HMS Prince of Wales in the skies over the east of the UK and in the North Sea.

The F-35B jets were pitted against eight ‘aggressor’ aircraft, allowing them to hone tactics between ship and fighter jets.

‘It’s a really exciting position to be the link between the jets and the ship,’ said controller Lieutenant Si Clark. ‘Although we don’t have them currently embarked, being able to control the jets during their training is a really rewarding role on HMS Prince of Wales.’

While HMS Prince of Wales works on Cold Response, her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth is carrying out training and exercises in the waters close to the UK.

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