Ships Depart For Northern Light

By Lt.j.g. Adrienne Stoudt
COMDESRON 24

Five ships and staff of Destroyer Squadron 24 (DESRON 24) recently departed Naval Station Mayport for Exercise Northern Light 03.

Northern Light, a major NATO exercise, will be held off the coast of Scotland from Sept. 15-26.

USS Roosevelt, USS Spruance, USS Taylor, USS The Sullivans, and USS Underwood will be joined by forces from 12 NATO nations, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Together, the force will compromise more than 50 ships and submarines, 15 fighter aircraft, numerous military helicopters, and approximately 800 amphibious landing troops.

Exercise Northern Light 03, a standing NATO exercise conducted every four years, is being utilized to develop and test the new NATO Response Force (NRF) proposed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in September 2002.

The main impetus of NRF is to create a rapidly deployable crisis response force composed of land, air, maritime, and command elements able to stand alone for 30 days in response to a wide array of NATO missions.

Exercise Northern Light will provide a complex and realistic environment to test the NRF concept with the forces conducting an amphibious landing on the Isle of Jura, Scotland on Sept. 20.

Commanding the amphibious landing will be the Amphibious Component Commander of the Belgian/Netherlands Task Group working from HNLMS Rotterdam. The Maritime Force will be commanded by Rear Adm. David Snelson, Royal Navy, on board HMS Invincible.

DESRON 24 staff and ships will play a large role in the exercise, serving as the Intercept Group Commander, Anti Surface Warfare Commander, Anti Air Warfare Commander, and Electronic Warfare Commander.

Commander, DESRON 24 and his staff will be embarked on board USS Roosevelt and with the assistance of USS Spruance, USS Taylor, USS The Sullivans, USS Underwood and a host of NATO warships. It will be the single largest task group in the exercise.

The exercise will challenge all ships and staffs in the task group during open ocean and coastal region operations where ships will conduct detection, localization, and targeting of exercise enemy forces culminating in a well-trained and efficient NATO force.