The RFTG was created under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review and is a rapid reaction force that deals with unexpected world events that require military intervention.

Cougar 12 will start with a beach assault by the Royal Marines in the UK’s South West, from 1-9 October, before the entire Group meets up in the Mediterranean later in the month.

Young Royal Marines Commando Officers in training conducting a beach insertion exercise (library image). (Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Martin Carney, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012)

Four warships, one amphibious support ship, a giant transport ship, three commando units, and helicopters and personnel from eight Fleet Air Arm, RAF and Army Air Corps squadrons are committed to the three-month deployment – in all more than 3,000 sailors, Royal Marines, soldiers and airmen.

They will take part in two large-scale exercises, interspersed with various smaller exercises and training and goodwill visits – in some cases to places which rarely see the White Ensign.

A Royal Marines commando fast ropes from a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter (library image). (Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Caroline Davies, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012)

The deployment will be the second test for the RFTG which was called upon last year to support operations off Libya: HMS Ocean launched repeated Apache gunship strikes from her flight deck while HMS Liverpool spent seven months enforcing the no-fly zone and preventing arms from reaching pro-Gaddafi forces by sea.

Twelve months on and Portsmouth-based HMS Illustrious will be taking HMS Ocean’s place as the helicopter carrier assigned to the task group.

Three Sea Kings are recovered to the deck of HMS Illustrious. (Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Ray Jones, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012)

Illustrious will be joined by the nation’s flagship, HMS Bulwark, from where Commodore Paddy McAlpine, Commander UK Task Group, and 3 Commando Brigade’s Brigadier Martin Smith will direct Cougar 12.

They will oversee two key exercises: Corsican Lion, working hand-in-hand with the French and, later this autumn, the Group will shift to the Adriatic to work with the Albanian military.

Corsican Lion, in the second half of October, will see the RFTG link up with France’s flagship, the aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle – the most powerful surface ship in western European waters.

Her flight deck will be the launchpad for Super Étendard and Rafale jets, offering a first real glimpse of how the RFTG should look at the end of the decade when the new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier enters service with the Royal Navy.

In the nearer future, Corsican Lion is the most important strand of Cougar and a major step along the road towards forging a fully-operational Anglo-French force by 2016.

HMS Bulwark takes the lead role in a multi-platform Maritime Combat Power Visit (library image). (Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Martin Carney, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012)

There will be planned exercises with the US and Algerian forces and visits to Algeria and Malta – particularly poignant for Illustrious as she has ties with the island going back to her predecessor and the dark days of the Second World War:

“Cougar 12 provides us with a superb opportunity to rekindle our amphibious capability after a prolonged period when our focus has been on operations elsewhere,” said Cdre McAlpine.

His force stands at five days’ notice to deploy anywhere in the world should the Government require it; in theory the Task Group can poise off the coast of 147 nations – three out of four countries in the world.