A cross-party group of MSPs took a close look at Europe’s largest military exercise when they visited Faslane on Friday.
Exercise Joint Warrior, which was launched at the start of last week and runs until May 4, includes more than 11,600 military personnel from 17 nations and is directed from the maritime operations centre at HM Naval Base Clyde on the Gareloch.
The visit was intended to help the MSPs to better understand the range of social and welfare issues relevant to Scots-based armed forces personnel, and their families.
Launched by the Parliament’s Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh MSP and the Ministry of Defence in April 2017, the Armed Forces Visit Programme has already had fact-finding visits to the Army’s Glencorse Barracks, Penicuik, RAF Lossiemouth, Moray and Royal Marine Condor, Arbroath.
This year the Joint Warrior training scenarios involve multiple nations disputing resources and territories; counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling activity, information warfare and evacuation operations.
The politicians also visited a submarine control room simulator and found out more about the developments at Faslane which will see it be the sole home of the UK Submarine Service from 2020.
Captain Chris Smith, naval regional commander, said: “The Armed Forces Visits programme helps MSPs find out more about the role and purpose of the military communities across Scotland and the issues that are important to them.
“Although Defence is clearly reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Parliament’s policies and decisions affect the day to day lives of all of our Scots-based service personnel.”
The MSPs (all Conservative unless otherwise stated) were Jackie Baillie (Labour), Michelle Ballantyne, William Bowman, Jackson Carlaw, Maurice Corry, Murdo Fraser, Gordon Lindhurst, Richard Lochhead, (SNP), Lewis Macdonald (Labour), Graham Simpson, Annie Wells and Brian Whittle.
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