What do you get if you combine Flipper, jet skis, helicopters, ships, boats and men in black?

The answer is one of the biggest war games in European waters this year, perhaps not surprisingly aimed at removing terrorists from the seas.

World events sharpened the focus of this year’s NATO exercise Blue Game, staged this spring in Scandinavia, on protecting shipping against piracy and terrorist attacks.

The 2004 manoeuvres in the Skagerrak and the Kattegat off the coast of southern Norway saw double the number of participants take advantage of this topical training.

The United Kingdom was one of 16 countries taking part in this major exercise featuring anti-mine, surface to air and surface-to-surface scenarios.

Some 6,000 personnel, of which 2,000 were Naval, were put through their paces in this, Norway’s second largest exercise this year.

Britain’s air assets for the war games – four Lynx helicopters and three Mk 7 Sea Kings – were led by Cdr Mark Sheehan, Commanding Officer Lynx Helicopter Force.

The Lynxes from 815 Squadron in Yeovilton flew out of Kjevik airfield at Kristiansand in southern Norway, and three Mk 7 ASaC Sea Kings from Culdrose operated from Aalborg in northern Denmark.

Norwegian troops fast-roped on to the flight deck of the Norwegian exercise flagship Andenes from a Royal Navy Lynx.

The Fleet Air Arm also flew Norwegian Coastal Rangers into various shore locations, exercising landing snipers to take over terrorist strongholds.

At sea, Sandown-class mine countermeasures vessels HM ships Ramsey and Penzance searched the waters off Norway and Denmark for underwater threats.

But the biggest buzz – literally – was provided by three jet skis from the Maritime Warfare Centre in Portsmouth.

The water bikes zipped up and down simulating an attack by terrorist fast craft, bringing to life the challenges of locating and tracking small and speedy enemy vessels.

And Flipper? Well, not actually Flipper, but two teams of US Navy dolphins trained to detect underwater mines and explosives were on hand.

As soon as the sea mammals found suspicious objects they marked them for human clearance divers to move in and render them harmless.

Cdr Sheehan said Blue Game had proved an important testing ground for his aircrew.

“The exercise provided 815 Squadron front-line crews and some students from 702 Squadron completing their Lynx Mk 8 conversion course with excellent training in this challenging region, flying on night-vision goggles and conducting force protection operations.

“We were very well looked after by the Norwegian and Danes. The host nations were excellent – first class,” he said.

Blue Game was also a chance for 702 NAS student Lt Stein Hansen, believed to be the first Norwegian Observer in the Fleet Air Arm for more than 56 years, to return to his hometown of Kristiansand after training with the RN for the past 18 months.

He is shortly to join HMS Iron Duke as a member of her Flight.

Participating countries included the United States, Germany, new NATO members countries Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as well as Sweden, a Partnership for Peace nation.

Norwegian Rear Admiral Arild Sandbekk, overseeing Blue Game, said the Allied nations would now sit down and study how the exercise ran. The war games, he said, had been “an exciting experience”.

He continued: “It’s important to draw lessons learned from exercises. We are bound to learn a lot. If not, we will have made fools of ourselves.”