By Phil Stewart, Ed Ou and Evelyn Hockstein
OFF THE COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA, June 30 (Reuters) – The warning came booming over the airwaves, in a voice unmistakably from the American south: “Warship! Get out of our waters!”
Norwegian Lieutenant Thomas Johannsen and his sailors were preparing for a simulated boarding operation — a core mission for their NATO maritime unit. But with so many other war games happening in the area, the crew was picking up unrelated chatter from a nearby vessel.
Johannsen pivoted to a clear frequency before addressing the cargo ship in his sights. “Please stop your vessel and accept my boarding team,” he commanded.
Reuters gained exclusive access to the NATO exercise on Friday, one in a series of U.S.-hosted drills focused on defending the American homeland – and timed to coincide with the country’s 250th anniversary.
They were conducted at a perilous moment for NATO, with the Trump administration questioning the value of the 77-year-old alliance, reviewing its force posture in Europe and lashing out at long-time allies.
In an Oval Office meeting last week with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, President Donald Trump admonished Britain, Spain, Germany and France for not doing more to support the U.S. war in Iran.
“We’re disappointed with most of them,” the president said.
David Cattler, a former NATO intelligence chief during Trump’s first term, said the drills send a potent message about the ability and willingness of European nations to defend both sides of the Atlantic. Yet he doubted it would change minds at the Pentagon.
“It’s hard for me to see,” Cattler said.
AN UNEASY ALLIANCE
Trump has long believed the U.S. shoulders too much of the cost for European security, upsetting many decades of bipartisan support for NATO in Washington.
In an address at NATO headquarters in mid-June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a six-month Pentagon review that could lead to a drawdown of U.S. forces in Europe. He scorned “free riding” allies and said the alliance had to be a two-way street.
The conflict in Iran has sharpened tensions further. An internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters in April floated suspending Spain from the alliance over its refusal to grant basing and overflight rights to the U.S. military during operations against Tehran.
But Spanish Marines joined the FLEETEX 250 exercises, carrying out ship-to-shore amphibious operations. French Marines also took part in drills, including on heavy machine guns, at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The U.S. military’s working-level embrace of allies is a sign that operational ties remain strong, experts say, transcending the political turbulence.
Drills like these are planned months or even years ahead of time. It is what militaries do to maintain readiness.
“Absent any intervention that would tell them to stop, they’re gonna continue to do it,” said Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine officer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“This is just NATO being NATO,” he said.
ALWAYS AT SEA
Reuters spent the day with Standing NATO Maritime Group One, commanded by British Commodore Maryla Ingham, which includes frigates from Norway, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Reuters journalists reached the area by helicopter, piloted by the Canadian air force, touching down on the ship’s flight deck about 40 nautical miles from the North Carolina coastline.
Ingham said her unit is used to being at sea, but they are more accustomed to the icy northern waters near the Arctic and around the Baltics, where they are on alert for Russian activity.
“This area doesn’t require as much patrolling because there isn’t as much threat here,” Ingham said.
For Norwegian Stian Buunk, the Fridtjof Nansen’s commanding officer, it was his first time operating in American waters. His frigate is smaller than U.S. destroyers but can still pack a punch, with air defense and anti-ship missiles, torpedoes for hunting submarines, and a 76 mm deck gun.
Being close to the Navy’s 2nd Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, meant plenty of American assets were also available, Buunk said.
“We had anti-air warfare exercises two days ago with F-18s. We had drones coming in,” he recounted. “And that makes it very realistic.”
One of Norway’s biggest contributions to NATO is its expertise in anti-submarine warfare. One drill involved mobilizing search-and-attack units to detect, track and expel a U.S. submarine.
Asked how his ship performed, Buunk tried to answer without gloating: “This ship is built for anti-submarine warfare,” he said.
“So, yah.”
Ingham said many European nations had other specializations required by NATO’s maritime forces. Belgium, for instance, is known for its anti-mine warfare capabilities.
“We are demonstrating both the flexibility in the reach of our unit, but also our ability to seamlessly operate alongside the Americans,” said Ingham.
‘NO MORE GOAT’
The boarding drill involved a case of suspected smuggling by a cargo ship from Pyropia, a fictitious country.
The actual ship was a U.S. Navy training support vessel. Prior to boarding, Norwegian forces cleared their weapons to avoid any accidental discharge. Then Johannsen asked over the radio whether there were any weapons or animals on board.
“We had a goat. But we eat goat. So now, no more goat,” the U.S. ship responded.
Lieutenant Erik Aasen, a navigation officer who led the boarding team, said a search of the ship turned up rifles, four bags of narcotics and some cash (issued by the “National Bank of Garnet,” another made-up nation).
It was Aasen’s first boarding operation outside Norwegian waters, and he considered it a success. The highlight of the drills, he said, was getting the chance to work with his American counterparts.
U.S. forces “have a lot of other experiences,” he said.
If the Pentagon moves ahead with plans to reduce NATO’s reliance on U.S. troops, it could mean fewer joint exercises in the future, experts said.
But Cancian was hopeful Congress would limit the impact, pointing to Republican pushback earlier this year when the Pentagon halted the deployment of thousands of rotational forces to Poland and the Baltics.
“The president can do it, but you know there’s clearly a political price,” he said.
(Reporting by Phil Steward, Ed Ou and Evelyn Hockstein; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and Daniel Wallis)
