Day 1:Carrier Strike Assembles

CSG25 is on – and the Carrier Strike Group starts taking shape. Setting out from bases across the UK – the Group heads to an assembly point off the coast of Cornwall.

From there, it will take up its blue water formation and begin its journey at a cruising speed of 25 knots to the Mediterranean for its first exercise, working with international partners.

For the Royal Navy – as one of the few maritime forces that can assemble a Strike Group with an aircraft carrier at its core – CSG25 marks the start of an operation which has been a decade in the planning.

Commodore James Blackmore now has approximately 4,000 UK personnel under his command, including 2,500 Royal Navy personnel in addition to forces from the RAF and the British Army.

In all, CSG25 will span seven months and a number of operational phases, each with its own command aims and objectives. CSG25 exercises will prove that UK forces are in a high state of readiness and have the presence to deal with any threat to our national security.