New frigates, joint P-8 maritime aircraft patrols and more frequent anti-sabotage elite training were on the table when Norway and the UK on Thursday signed a first-of-its-kind defence agreement that will let the two navies operating side by side in the North Atlantic.

The partnership is designed to protect undersea oil and gas pipelines, as well as cables for data traffic.

Both navies will operate as one – sharing maintenance facilities, technology and equipment to create truly interchangeable forces able to deploy rapidly wherever needed, the British Ministry of Defence said in a press release.

This is the most comprehensive defence agreement in modern times, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence added as the deal was sign by Defence Secretary John Healey and his Norwegian counterpart Tore O. Sandvik at 10 Downing Street on December 4.

“The British presence in the High North plays a crucial role in safeguarding Norwegian and European security,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after he met his British colleague Keir Starmer in London.

The two prime ministers then flew north to the Royal Airforce base Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is from here British P-8 maritime patrol aircraft are operating when flying missions over the North Sea or further north over the Norwegian and Barents Seas.

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  • Ozymandias1688@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    8 hours ago

    Sure, but would modern asw ships even have depth charges on board? I’m curious to know whether they are still issued as kind of “shoot across the bow” equivalent for submarines.

    • jenesaisquoi@feddit.orgEnglish
      8·
      8 hours ago

      Good question. Perhaps it was this ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rauma-class_missile_boat firing this weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elma_ASW-600

      Or it was this one, which has a rail for depth charges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina-class_missile_boat

      But I’m not an expert at all. Maybe the reports of “depth charges” was just the journalists not having a good understanding of ASW weapons, just like me

      • trollercoaster@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        8·
        8 hours ago

        It makes sense to still have some “dumb” unguided weapons as a backup, as homing weapons’ sensors can be jammed and fooled to go after decoys, while a depth charge that simply drops down to a given point and blows up cannot be easily interfered with in any meaningful way, you can’t even locate it using only passive sensors, because it is virtually noiseless apart from the very brief noise it makes when entering the water.

        Also, as someone else mentioned, you can easily fire an unguided weapon in such a way that it deliberately misses the target, as a warning.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      2·
      6 hours ago

      They are not that hard to make and you can plan in advance to run ‘exercises’. So normally they might not but when they realize a need they can start putting them in rotation.

      • Ozymandias1688@feddit.orgEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Funny how simple some weapons are, even relatively modern ones. Depth charges are essentially just like dynamite fishing, but with submarines 😁