🇬🇧🇺🇸 The UK and the US: Maintaining the strong bond
The UK and US defence relationship is broad, find out three ways that we work alongside our US counterparts
Deployed on operations and exercises around the globe with each other, the UK and the US defence relationship spans back to the first and second World Wars.
Both nations continually consult on foreign policy issues and global problems and share major foreign and security policy objectives.
Here are three key ways that the UK Armed Forces have worked with US forces:
1. Operations
⚓️ UK Carrier Strike Group deployment
The Carrier Strike Group, led by aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth are currently on their maiden global deployment, which will see them interact with more than one-fifth of the world’s nations.
The Carrier Strike Group is complemented by US Marine Corps and US Navy personnel and equipment. This includes a detachment of US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft and the US Navy’s destroyer, USS The Sullivans.
- UK Carrier Strike Group explained: Global Britain in action
- Meet the Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group that will travel around the world
🇪🇪🇵🇱 Operation CABRIT: NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP)
The UK is deployed to Estonia and Poland on Operation CABRIT, the UK’s contribution to NATO’s eFP. While we lead the NATO Battlegroup in Estonia, we are also supporting our American allies in Poland.
We work with our US counterparts and other NATO allies across NATO’s eFP with the aim to deter aggression in Estonia and Poland.
In 2017, NATO enhanced its presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, with four multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
These battlegroups, led by the UK, Canada, Germany and the United States as a framework, are multinational and combat-ready, demonstrating the strength of the transatlantic bond. It is part of the biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defence and European security in a generation.
2. Exercises
Exercise Rattlesnake
Hosted in Louisiana by the US Army, Exercise Rattlesnake is designed to push personnel to their limits, and challenge them to demonstrate the very best of their capabilities in challenging situations.
Training inside an area known as ‘The Box’, British forces will be put through their paces in one of the US Army’s toughest training camps.
Find out more about Exercise Rattlesnake below👇
3. Memberships in International Organisations
Both the United Kingdom and the United States are among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5). The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression.
The UK and US were also two of the twelve founding members of NATO back in 1949.
The UK and US are very close allies in many ways, both with the vision of maintaining peace and stability across the globe.
