Scottish Live-Fire Drills Challenge NATO Air, Missile Defense

LONDON–Some 22 ships from 10 NATO navies will face attacks from subsonic, supersonic and ballistic missiles in wargames off the northwest coast of Scotland in the coming days.

Exercise Formidable Shield 2025 is a biennial integrated air and missile defense exercise organized by the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet. It will pit NATO warships against a range of threats thanks to the open water and airspace available to the Hebrides ranges, allowing them to perform live-firing of weaponry. In addition to warships, combat aircraft will also be involved in the drills, not only to train the crews at sea, but also to sanitize the airspace ahead of a planned interception of a medium-range ballistic missile target by one of the warships.

The U.S. Marine Corps is also expected to live-fire one of its land-based High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). Ships will also engage small drones, fast-inshore attack craft and subsonic missile threats during the exercise, which formally began in Norwegian waters off Andoya on May 1. It is currently transitioning to the Hebrides and concludes May 23.

International navies use the exercise to train personnel and perform test and evaluation of their systems ahead of releasing them to the front line.

“Formidable Shield is seen as a significant contributor to NATO BMD (ballistic missile defense). There is nowhere else NATO BMD can rehearse, test and trial the capabilities that they need to deliver in theater,” James Anderson, business development lead for Above Water & Aviation at QinetiQ, which runs the Hebridian ranges on behalf of the UK defense ministry, told journalists here. He spoke during a May 8 briefing.

The use of the ranges for Formidable Shield has prompted further investment in the facilities that support the exercise, including an expansion of the number of target launch systems. This includes supersonic targets such as the U.S. Navy’s GQM-163 Coyote and ballistic targets such as the two-stage Aegis Readiness Assessment Vehicle, or ARAV-B, which will be used during this year’s exercise.

Facilities have also been developed to assemble the systems on site. QinetiQ provides all the subsonic threats, including Banshee drones and Hammerhead uncrewed surface vessels.

Anderson says the exercise is partly scripted for safety reasons. If ships’ crews are being trained and tested, then a series of “trusted agents” will be aboard who are aware of what is about to occur. The ships are sent threat information, but not when or where, giving crews an “element of stress” during the exercise.

Drills are planned almost two years in advance, Anderson says, with the development of the program for 2027 beginning in earnest shortly after the conclusion of the 2025 edition.

“We all get excited that we are shooting down supersonic and ballistic targets as well as the subsonic and drones we are seeing in theater at the moment, but on the engineering side, it’s the data and the networking capability and connectivity that is being put to the test,” Anderson said. “That is how we can prove we can operate together.”

Generally, the Hebrides ranges cover an area of 115,000 km² (44,402 mi.²) and unlimited altitudes. But for trials to deal with ballistic missile engagements, the range will be expanded to around 1 million km² (386,102 mi.²), almost four times the land area of the UK, to ensure safety around the engagement.

Anderson says maritime patrol aircraft like UK and U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidons will be used to monitor the area during the engagement. International militaries are also making increased use of the Hebridean ranges, with agreements through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency enabling NATO countries to perform live air-to-air missile firings with Germany and the U.S. Air Force making use of the facilities.