Exercise Spring Train (also referred to as Springtrain) was an annual Royal Navy-led NATO maritime exercise conducted in the Eastern Atlantic. It is most notable for the 1982 exercise which involved seven warships that were subsequently sent to the South Atlantic after the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. Because the vessels involved already had full crews and were able to crossdeck supplies from other ships in the exercise the British response was more rapid than would have otherwise been possible. Two of the vessels involved in the exercise, the Type 42 destroyers Sheffield and Coventry, were sunk during the war. There has been speculation that some of the ships sent to the Falklands from Exercise Spring Train were carrying tactical nuclear weapons, which were routinely carried when on NATO deployments. The 1983 edition of the exercise was criticised by the Spanish and Soviet government who considered it provocative.
Early exercises
The Amphion-class submarine Affray was en-route to Exercise Spring Train in June 1951 when it was lost with all 75 hands near Alderney. This edition of Spring Train was UK-based, centering on the landing of special forces troops on a Cornish beach. Spring Train later became an annual exercise for NATO naval forces, led by the Royal Navy. It was based from the British dockyard in Gibraltar with operations conducted in the deep waters of the Eastern Atlantic which were ideal for anti-submarine warfare exercises. The 1976 exercise, carried out in February, was attended by the Audacious-class aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the Tiger-class cruiser Blake and two Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels. A BBC crew, filming for the documentary series Sailor was onboard Ark Royal during the exercise.
Exercise Spring Train 1977 ran from 20 to 27 February and was attended by the US Navy's Knox-class frigate Miller. The next year's exercise also ran in February and was attended by the British Centaur-class aircraft carrier Hermes. HMS London participated in the 1981 exercise, one of her few sailings that year due to restrictions on fuel expenditure. She sailed from Portsmouth to Gibraltar in mid-March. Also present were the Type 42 destroyer Newcastle, the Type 12M frigate Rothesay and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels Fort Grange and Olna. The 1981 exercise included a 2-week minesweeping exercise in May attended by the Ton-class minesweeper Glasserton, manned by a crew from the Royal Naval Reserve.
1982 exercise
The 1982 exercise took place off Gibraltar from late March, the vessels involved having left Britain on 17 March. Some 18 British destroyers and frigates participated in the exercise including the County-class destroyers Antrim and Glamorgan; the Type 42 destroyers Sheffield, Coventry and Glasgow; the Type 22 frigates Brilliant, Broadsword and Battleaxe; the Type 21 frigates Arrow and Active; the Leander-class frigates Aurora, Ariadne, Dido and Euryalus. The Swiftsure-class submarines Spartan and Superb also attended. A number of support vessels were also present for the exercise, which was commanded from Antrim by Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, whose First Flotilla provided many of the warships.
Phase one of the operation, largely working-up exercises, lasted until 26 March when the vessels put into the docks at Gibraltar for rest and resupply. Tensions with Argentina over British territories in the South Atlantic had been increasing since the landing of Argentine scrap merchants in South Georgia on 19 March. On 26 March the support ship RFA Fort Austin was ordered to leave the exercise and proceed to the South Atlantic to support HMS Endurance. Fort Austin eventually met with Endurance on 14 April. On 29 March the Secretary of State for Defence John Nott met with the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Henry Leach to discuss the situation. As a result of this meeting Spartan was ordered to leave Spring Train and proceed to the Falklands. Spartan immediately docked at Gibraltar to swap her practice torpedoes for live ones and sailed south on 1 April, within 48 hours of receiving the order. Spartan, being on exercise, was the only submarine that could immediately be tasked to sail (Superb having been sent to the Western Approaches to investigate two reported Soviet submarines) but was later joined by others sent from HMNB Clyde.