Lieutenant Harriet Austin said Exercise Wildfire gave the Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter exercise a realistic and demanding setting to train with French counterparts. The Wildcat from 815 Naval Air Squadron took part in the five-day drill off Toulon, where it helped defend the French Strike Group against uncrewed aerial and surface threats.
Exercise Wildfire off Toulon
The exercise was designed to test and enhance air defense against emerging crewless and autonomous technology. The French Strike Group gathered off Toulon with six ships, including an air defense frigate, a Chevallier-class supply vessel, a La Fayette-class frigate, two air defense destroyers, and a helicopter assault ship.
That mix gave the Royal Navy and the French navy a live setting for air-defense serials that asked crews to detect, track, and engage uncrewed threats. The exercise was in its sixth year, and Austin said, "Training like this is essential to ensuring we are ready to defend maritime task groups alongside partnering NATO allies."
Wildcat and Martlet at work
The Wildcat was central to the live engagements and successfully defended the task group using Martlet missiles. Austin said, "The exercise highlighted the effectiveness of the Wildcat and Martlet weapon system against modern threats while strengthening the close partnership between our two navies."
Exercise Wildfire also saw the first testing of the French Rampart defense system. Fired from the landing helicopter dock ship, it shot down a target with a laser-guided rocket, while interceptor drones were tested as part of the same drill.
For crews, the immediate value was practical: one exercise put the Wildcat, Martlet, French Rampart, and interceptor drones into the same live-fire environment, showing how each defense was judged against the same uncrewed threat set. What it does not answer is how the Wildcat and Martlet compared with the other defenses tested; only the overall exercise result, not a side-by-side score, was described.
Lieutenant Harriet Austin
Austin was based at RNAS Yeovilton with 815 Naval Air Squadron when she described the training, making her comments a direct account from the unit that sent the Wildcat. Her words point to the operational purpose of the week in Toulon: a five-day test of how Royal Navy and French crews defend a task group when the threat comes from above and from the surface at the same time.
