Her Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Toronto joins Exercise NOBLE JUSTIFICATION today as part of her Operation REASSURANCE NATO deployment in response to Russia's aggressive military actions against Ukraine.
Toronto and other Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) warships will conduct Task Force training exercises and force integration activities in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea regions from October 13-26.
Exercise NOBLE JUSTIFICATION will prepare and test HMCS Toronto's ability to respond to a variety of NATO operational contingencies.
The exercise will also enhance force integration, multinational interoperability and readiness through a high density, high threat scenario in which NATO responds to violations of its territorial integrity and the sovereignty of its member states.
Exercise NOBLE JUSTIFICATION will be conducted in a series of three phases:
- The first phase is a pre-sail conference from October 13 to 16.
- The second phase will take place at sea and will focus on interoperability training in asymmetric multi-threat and conventional maritime warfare operations from October 16 to 22.
- The final free play operations phase is conducted at sea where participating forces will respond to a complicated crisis response scenario from October 22 to 26.
Exercise NOBLE JUSTIFICATION will involve more than 5000 military and naval personnel as well as 22 warships from 14 NATO nations: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Two partner nations, Finland and Sweden, are also involved.
Operation REASSURANCE refers to the military activities undertaken by the CAF to support NATO assurance measures through the provision of military capabilities for training, exercises, demonstrations and assigned NATO tasks. The CAF's response in support of NATO's request promotes security and stability in Central and Eastern Europe, and demonstrates Canada's steadfast commitment to our allies in the region.
The Standing NATO Maritime Groups are multinational, integrated maritime forces made up of vessels from various allied countries. These vessels are permanently available to NATO to perform different tasks ranging from exercises to operational missions. They also help to establish Alliance presence, demonstrate solidarity, conduct routine diplomatic visits to different countries, support partner engagement, and provide a variety of maritime military capabilities to ongoing missions.
HMCS Toronto is a Halifax-class frigate based out of Canadian Fleet Atlantic in Halifax. Nova Scotia, and has a crew of 250 personnel of all ranks, including a CH-124 Sea King helicopter and air detachment.
For additional information: CJOC Op REASSURANCE
For imagery: http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca/site/gallery-eng.asp?value=NATOSEATASK14
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