2 NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2011


HMS Brocklesby HMS Sabre/Scimitar RFA Wave Ruler


HMS Cumberland HMS Cornwall HMS Iron Duke


HMS Tireless HMS Echo


FASLANE HMS Gannet HMS Manchester DEVONPORT


CULDROSE 771 NAS


HMS Northumberland 800 NAS


YEOVILTON


3 Cdo Bde/CHF PORTSMOUTH


Cod Squad


HMS Albion HMS Sutherland


HMS Diamond ROSYTH


HMS Clyde RFA Black Rover


HMS Gloucester HMS Scott Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas


HMS Enterprise HMS Chiddingfold HMS Middleton HMS Pembroke HMS Grimsby RFA Bayleaf RFA Diligence RFA Lyme Bay


814 NAS I-TAM(N)


845 NAS/846 NAS/847 NAS/ 854 NAS/FDG/1710 NAS


Fleet Focus Fleet Focus


THERE are two dominant themes this month: pirates and payings-off.


The former were thwarted by HMS Cornwall (see page 5)... which will shortly be joining the growing ranks of decommissioned RN vessels and units.


Type 22 frigate, HMS Cumberland (see page 15); the latter ship is also earmarked for decommissioning.


Ships Chatham and Manchester, RFA Fort George and 800 NAS (Chatham, Fort George and 800 NAS were axed under the defence review, Manchester has reached the end of her natural life); and HMS Ark Royal’s lengthy wind-down has continued with parades in Portsmouth and Leeds (see pages 6 and 19-21). Away from this doom and gloom, there is at least some good news. Assault ship HMS Bulwark has emerged from refit (with one ‘interesting’ teething problem for her crew to overcome – see page 4).


The giant jigsaw that is HMS Queen Elizabeth is taking shape; another huge section has been slotted into place on the Clyde (see page 4).


the rest again when it comes to saving lives; the Prestwick fliers were the Forces No.1 Search and Rescue unit in 2010 (see page 7).


A few miles away Britain’s newest destroyer, HMS Diamond, was exercising with the Sea Kings of HMS Gannet before paying her first visit to Aberdeen, her affiliated city (see page 11). As for HMS Gannet itself, it stands head and shoulders above


Squadron – Tyne, Mersey and Severn – met in the Solent for their once-a-year exercise (see opposite). In the Southern Ocean, HMS Clyde restored memorials to the men of 1982 (see page 25) while HMS Gloucester ventured to South Georgia for a taste of (chilly) paradise (see pages 8-9). The Fighting G’s time is nearly up as HMS York has left Portsmouth to replace her (see page 6). HMS Scott headed even further south to the South Shetlands, the first port of call on her way to surveying waters around Britain’s Antarctic territories (see pages 8-9). In warmer waters, 814 NAS have been pinging off Sicily at the year’s biggest anti-submarine exercise (see right), while their Culdrose-based compatriots in 849, 854 and 857 NAS have been rewarded for their efforts in Afghanistan (also see right). With Cumberland on her way home to pay off, Gulf duties have been handed over to HMS Iron Duke, making her debut in these waters (see page 14). With the demise of the Type 22s imminent, the 23s are now the backbone of the Fleet – and are appropriately very busy. HMS Northumberland paid her first visit to the North East in a couple of years (see page 6). HMS Sutherland is preparing to escort HMS Albion to the Mediterranean and beyond. Both ships were ‘treated’ to some ‘top-up’ training off Plymouth (see pages 10 and 17). And fresh from pirate busting duties, HMS Montrose sent her junior sailors to Dartmouth to teach them the art of low-level leadership (see page 18). There’s a new flag flying from HMS Ocean as Britain’s biggest warship was named the nation’s most effective capital ship (see page 6).


And finally... Godspeed the men and women of 3 Commando Brigade who will soon be holding the right of the line in Afghanistan. The brigade conducted its final battle exercise before deploying with the Commando Helicopter Force on Salisbury Plain (see pages 22-24).


Also in UK waters, the three ships of the Fishery Protection These past few weeks has seen the passing of Her Majesty’s For the final time the Fighting 99 exercised at sea with another


● A Sea King of 854 NAS taxis at Camp Bastion as it prepares for another night-time surveillance mission high above Helmand


Picture: LA(Phot) Alex Cave, 854 NAS Sea King knights


“NO MEAN feats” by Sea King ground crews have ensured they’ve picked up a prestigious award.


from the rest of the Fleet Air Arm, the maritime Sea King Force were awarded the Rolls-Royce Engineering Effi ciency Trophy.


Against particularly strong competition


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The award is typically presented to an individual squadron, but the accomplishments of the maritime Sea King Force – that’s 771 Naval Air Squadron and Gannet Search and Rescue Flight, plus the trio of ‘Bagger’ squadrons, 849, 854 and 857 – over the past 12 months so impressed senior offi cers and Rolls-Royce bosses that they determined the entire force should be recognised.


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The two naval Search and Rescue units – Culdrose-based 771 NAS and Gannet at Prestwick in Scotland were scrambled more than 650 times, not counting training missions and other regular duties.


the force operating in Afghanistan in the fi ght against the insurgents while back in the UK others have continued to conduct Search and Rescue duties around the clock,” said Cdr Pat Douglas, Sea King Helicopter Force Commander.


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and Control helicopters are the ‘eyes in the sky’ of Allied ground troops in southern Afghanistan, monitoring the activity of insurgents. The helicopters are in Afghan skies daily – and each sortie lasts several hours.


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All this effort in the skies demands an enormous input from the technicans, mechanicians and engineers on the ground – for every hour airborne it’s reckoned that a Sea King devours around a dozen ‘man hours’.


As for the Baggers, the Airborne Surveillance e


He added: “These achievements by Sea King Force engineers have demanded dedication, innovation, agility and effi ciency and have been in the fi nest traditions of the Fleet A


Air Arm. The Sea King Force fully deserves recognition through the award of the Rolls- Royce Effi ciency Trophy.”


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recently-modernised hangar at Culdrose in the presence of Cdre David Marsh (Assistant Chief of Staff, Logistics) and Rolls-Royce’s Senior Vice President – Engineering and Technology Ian Ritchey as principal guests. With the exception of personnel on front-line duties in Afghanistan, the entire maritime Sea King Force was present.


The trophy was presented in 771 NAS’s


Tom Cunningham, the head of the Fleet Air Arm who told the Sea King men and women that they’d had “a real impact” in Afghanistan, played a key role in exercises with the Fleet, and provided “unprecedented levels of Search and Rescue response”.


To A


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Force.” His words were endorsed by Rear Admiral


“The achievement of these tasks is no mean feat and we only succeed with the support, dedication and focus of our engineers and maintainers. This is a very proud day for all of us in the Sea King


“The last 12 months have seen many of


814 proud, not noble


DOING what they love doing best in the Mediterranean were the men and women of 814 Naval Air Squadron – the Flying Tigers. (That would be ‘pinging’, by the way). The Navy’s


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No.1 submarine hunting squadron fl ew 1,400 miles from its home at Culdrose in Cornwall to Sicily to


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take part in the world’s largest anti- submarine exercise. Run by NATO, Proud Manta (it used to be called Noble Manta until this year) sees ships, aircraft and submarines from the USA, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey plus hosts Italy converging on the central Med for a week. There were half a dozen submarines for the surface and air forces to ‘play’ with on the week-long Combined Air- Submarine Exercise or CASEX (also, apparently, known as a ‘snoozex’ because it’s rather repetitive...). But hey, it’s in Sicily. In the sun. And for 814 it was the fi rst chance to do some serious pinging since last year’s trip to the USA with the Auriga task group, which proved extremely useful for the squadron.


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The Flying Tigers’ CO, Cdr Darran Goldsmith, said he “couldn’t wait” to go hunting. “Proud Manta provided 814 with the opportunity to hone its anti-submarine skills,” he adds. “In addition, for aircrew new to the front line the transit to and from Sicily offered excellent navigation training and experience.


“The interaction with our Italian Merlin counterparts – engineering practices and fl ying procedures – was a most welcome bonus in an exercise which promised much in a concentrated period of focussed tactical activity.”


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