Royal Navy: Portsmouth Naval Base to be visited by a fleet of Nato warships

The vessels, which include Spanish, Belgian, Portuguese and Canadian frigates and a huge supply tanker from Norway, will arrive on Friday.

It’s understood the five warships had previously been involved in a major Nato wargame off the British coast, also attended by the Royal Navy.

Known as Exercise Joint Warrior, the drills brought together 20 warships, two submarines, seven maritime patrol aircraft and other air assets, as well as personnel from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

Joint Warrior ran for two-weeks, beginning on September 18, with ships, submarines, and aircraft from ten nations using the maritime training grounds off the coast of Scotland to hone their military skills.

The huge exercise finished on September 30 and several of the exercise participants have taken advantage of Scotland’s ports to stop-off before the journey homeward.

Among the ships making their entry into Portsmouth include frigates BNS Leopold, from Belgian, HMCS Fredericton from Canada, NRP Corte-Real from the Portuguese Navy and Spain’s ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbón.

Norway’s huge new replenishment oiler HNoMS Maud will also be venturing into Portsmouth.

The 27,500-tonne, 600ft warship can supply up to 200 tonnes of ammunition, spare parts, 30 tonnes of supplies, boats, vehicles, and over nine million litres of fuel.

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The first Nato ship to arrive will be HMCS Fredericton at 9.45am, followed shortly by the Almirante Juan de Borbón at 10.15am.

Leopold will enter Portsmouth at 11.15am, Corte Real at midday and Maud at 1.30pm.

The Royal Navy has been approached for comment.

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