The island of Ireland is in an “absolutely critical position” amid rising tensions with Russia, according to the joint military commander in Northern Ireland.
Brigadier Piers Ashfield made the remarks as the Royal Air Force deployed a P-8 Poseidon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth to the Joint Helicopter Command Flying Station Aldergrove last week, reports The Mirror.
Although the aircraft’s main purpose in Northern Ireland was to take part in a joint search and rescue exercise with the Coastguard and RNLI, the deployment also carried military importance.
The Poseidon aircraft, regarded as one of the RAF’s key intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance assets, was operating from Aldergrove for the first time, reports The Mirror.
Brigadier Ashfield, who commands 38 Brigade and is the most senior military officer in Northern Ireland, described the exercise as the “physical manifestation” of a revised memorandum of understanding agreed between the UK and Ireland in March to strengthen defence co-operation.
“The aim of this has really been to test and adjust some of our operating procedures to provide an enhanced level of safety and security for people across the island of Ireland in the maritime domain, particularly focused on this exercise on search and rescue,” he told the Press Association,
“Ireland has always been a prisoner of that geography, and where it operates in the Greenland-Iceland gap, as you’ve seen the various ministerial leaders of the MoD (Ministry of Defence) describing the threat from Russian naval operations in that space that threatens both the critical national infrastructure that not only the UK depends on, but a significant part of Europe and our allies and partners depend on as well,
“It occupies an absolutely critical position covering this really important stretch of water in the North Atlantic,
“It’s the most westerly (base), and I think that provides an advantage not only for the UK operating from here, but also our allies and partners across both Nato and through some of our bilateral arrangements as well,” reports The Mirror.
Wing Commander Rob McCartney, who leads the Lossiemouth-based 201 Squadron, said the island of Ireland’s location in the North Atlantic — where the Russian navy frequently operates — makes it strategically significant in global terms.
“The UK signed a memorandum of understanding with Ireland only a couple of months ago, which signals a much closer security relationship than we had before,” he told the Press Association. While we’re here doing search and rescue, we’re also here to plant a little flag in Aldergrove and say the RAF is here in Aldergrove, we plan to operate here and we plan to operate much closer with our Irish partners,” reports The Mirror.
He added: “The North Atlantic has been strategically important for about 100 years, and since the Second World War has become even more strategic. The Russian navy regularly deploy in the North Atlantic and, on this side of the Atlantic, it is the island of Ireland that is closest to that battlefield, so while we’re not here today to conduct anti-submarine warfare, we’re not here to track Russians or drop torpedoes, we are here to make the point partially that Ireland, the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Aldergrove, this airfield, will be strategically important in the future – of that there is no doubt,” reports The Mirror.
“The RAF is here to get used to operating from here, and who knows where that will take us. We in a war of deterrence, what we’re here to do is say to Vladimir Putin ‘we’re willing and ready to be stronger than you and do things that win this war, and airfields like Aldergrove will be part of that solution’,” reports The Mirror.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
