2 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2010


JSAM 800 NAS HMS Sabre/Scimitar HMS Manchester HMS Gloucester HMS Tireless HMS Ocean FASLANE ROSYTH HMS Gannet 800/801 NAS DEVONPORT


CULDROSE 771 NAS


YEOVILTON PORTSMOUTH Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas HMS Portland


HMS Clyde RFA Black Rover


HMS Northumberland HMS Somerset HMS Montrose HMS Enterprise HMS Chiddingfold HMS Middleton HMS Pembroke HMS Grimsby RFA Bayleaf RFA Lyme Bay RFA Cardigan Bay


40 Cdo/845 NAS/846 NAS/ 857 NAS/FDG/MASU


IMAT RM Band


Something new comes courtesy of HMS Diamond, making her first entry to Portsmouth (see right); HM Ships Defender and Dragon being inspected by senior officers on the Clyde (see page 21); Lynx Wildcat simulators are preparing Fleet Air Arm aviators for the next-generation helicopter (see page 7); and £1bn submarine HMS Astute has formally joined the Royal Navy family, commissioned at Faslane in the presence of the Duchess of Rothesay (see page 4). And at the other end of the temporal scale... It’s 25th birthday celebrations all round this year. HMS York marked her silver jubilee with a gathering of former COs (see page 13); the Gibraltar Squadron enjoyed a ceremony followed by birthday cake (see page 10); and flagship HMS Ark Royal is gearing up for a 25th anniversary cocktail party (she also bade farewell to her CO for the past two years Capt John Clink – see page 9). Several years of bitter sacrifice around the heavily-contested town of Sangin by British soldiers and Royal Marines officially ended with 40 Commando handing over responsibility for the district to the Americans (see pages 22-23). 40 Commando are on the eve of coming home, as is a four-


Although the formal combat mission has come to an end in Iraq, a small RN presence remains both in Baghdad and at Umm Qasr on Operation New Dawn/Telic, chiefly training Iraqi sailors and marines (see page 8). Across the Pond, HMS Manchester chased the coattails of Hurricane Igor to help Bermudians (Igor mercifully proved not to be quite as devastating as feared... see opposite). HMS Gloucester snared suspected drug traffickers in an


Team based at Yeovilton who clear a path for helicopters to land and operate anywhere in the world (see page 18). A clutch of vessels is emerging from the throes of refits and overhauls: HMS Bulwark (see page 13); HMS Argyll (see page 21); and HMS Edinburgh (see page 11) – the latter is the very last Type 42 destroyer to receive a refit, ending more than 30 years of work for Britain’s dockyards. And finally... spare a thought for 90 or so sailors and marines


internationally-coordinated bust off the Cape Verde Islands as she made her way to the Falklands (see opposite). There she’ll replace HMS Portland which has ended her four months around the South Atlantic islands and swapped oceans, making for Valparaiso in Chile (see page 10). Also in South America is HMS Ocean which paid her first visit to Rio to exercise with Brazilian marines (see pages 14-15). HMS Talent’s seven-month stint east of Suez is over. She left Devonport in the rain and, guess what, she returned in the rain (see page 5). Such weather hasn’t blighted the activities of the legendary 800 Naval Air Squadron whose Harriers decamped to Cyprus (yes, it’s a hard life) to practise close-air support and help train Afghanistan-bound troops (see pages 12 and 24-25). Warm climes often beckon too for the Mobile Air Operations


who are marooned in the flat expanses of Lincolnshire, far from the sea and heartlands of the RN. Worse still, they have to work alongside the RAF (only joking... see page 26).


Iraq’s oil platforms to enjoy R&R in Dubai (see page 8) while HM Ships Chiddingfold, Pembroke, Middleton and Grimsby, plus RFA Lyme Bay, linked up for exercises with US mine warfare forces (see page 8).


strong team of frogmen from the Fleet Diving Group who’ve spent the past five months rendering explosive devices safe... usually with a big bang (see page 6). In the Gulf, HMS Somerset has taken a break from patrolling


THIS month we can offer you something old, something new, lots of (navy) blue... (but we’re struggling with the borrowed).


Fleet Focus


Picture: Paul Jacobs courtesy of The News Portsmouth


Jewel of the Crown


GLISTENING in the fi rst rays of sun cast upon Portsmouth Harbour, the third of the Navy’s £1bn destroyers makes her inaugural entry to her home port. It was ten minutes after sunrise on September 22 that HMS Diamond glided past Round Tower, welcomed by a dedicated band of three-dozen wellwishers who were undeterred by the early start. Tugs and a police launch ushered Diamond to her berth in Portsmouth Naval Base, whereupon ensued.


frenetic activity


These were the final hours under the Blue Ensign. Later that Wednesday D34 was officially transferred from the hands of her builder BAE Systems to the Royal Navy, permitting the White


Ensign to be raised for the first time.


It fell to Cdre Steve Brunton, the RN’s Head of Destroyers, to formally accept Diamond on the Senior Service’s behalf. The ship, says her Commanding Officer Cdr Ian Clarke, already has “the wow factor”. The tricky bit now is to bond his dedicated team and turn “Diamond into an effective front-line warship, ready for operations anywhere in the world.”


moving up a couple of gears this autumn. Daring’s gone on her first mini-


Things in Type 45 Land are


deployment, Dauntless is firing the Sea Viper missile system for the first time (see page 5), Duncan is launched later this month and Defender and Dragon have


received visits from senior officers (see page 21). The Dragons


behind to pay their first official visit to Cardiff, the city with which the destroyer will be bound for the next 35 or so years. A formal ceremony was held by civic leaders in the Welsh capital to cement the nascent ties between ship and city in the presence of Cardiff Lord Mayor Cllr Keith Hyde, Dragon’s Senior Naval Officer Cdr Ian Jackson, ship’s company


Commander for Wales and the West


Miller. Then it’s back to the Clyde to


of


and Naval Regional England, Cdre Jamie


prepare D35 for sea trials which begin next month. ■ From the navy’s newest destroyer to her oldest, HMS Bristol.


left their ship


After 17 years immobile at HMS Excellent, the unique warship – she was the only one of a class of four ships designed to protect aircraft carriers which were never built – Bristol has moved across the water into Portsmouth Naval Base for a refit. Since paying off, Bristol has


served as an accommodation and training ship, berthed permanently at the southern tip of Whale Island. In excess of 17,000 sailors and cadets use her facilities annually – but such high usage has taken its toll, hence the need for a refit. While work on the ship continues


2011, dredgers will move into her berth to remove upwards of 7ft of silt which has accumulated beneath Bristol since 1993.


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