6 NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2011


51˚S for the fastest 42


PUNCHING through the South Atlantic at speed right about now is HMS York, bound for the Falklands to relieve her sister. Britain’s fastest destroyer (34kts) is due in the Falklands in the middle of the month, allowing her sister Gloucester (see pages 8-9) to head home. The Type 42 will spend a few months in and around the Falklands and South Georgia, returning to Portsmouth in July via the Caribbean and finally the USA. To ready York for the deployment south again (her previous tour of duty over the Austral summer of 2009-10 was also to the Falklands), the ship has received two new gas turbines and she has loosed no fewer than seven Sea Dart missiles on the ranges off the Outer Hebrides to prove her main weapon system was fully functioning. “We’ve been preparing


hard for this deployment and I’m delighted with my ship’s company’s response to the training,” said Commanding Officer Cdr Simon Staley. “Our families deserve a very special mention – and thanks – too. They have been the very cornerstone of strength for us all throughout a hugely-demanding period of regeneration.


“By sheer distance from the UK – and in the face of a harsh South Atlantic winter – the deployment will present some real challenges for us all, but this will be balanced by the visits to some wonderfully diverse countries.”


Bye, George


Mighty O Effi cient O Cheery O


WHAT’S this crisp new blue and white fl ag adorned with hippocampi billowing in the breeze? That’s the Fleet Effi ciency


Pennant.


THERE’S something suitably poignant about the tones in this moving image of RFA Fort George making her fi nal entry to Devonpor (courtesy of LA(Phot) Nicola Wilson of FRPU West).


ort


the Strategic Defence and Security Review; while all the media attention (and Navy News fell into this trap admittedly) focused on the demise of HMS Ark Royal, the Harrier jump jets and all four Type 22 frigates, three auxiliaries were also axed – a smaller surface fleet requires a smaller support fleet. So the plug was pulled on veteran tanker RFA Bayleaf, nearly-new amphibious ship RFA Largs Bay and Fort George, 17 years old and – with her still-in-service sister Fort Victoria – the largest ship in the Fleet. While Fort George’s demise may be untimely, she goes out on a


of a


The one-stop support ship is one of the ‘forgotten victims’ of


Effectiveness trophy for her work supporting a sizeable RN task force (two carriers, one assault ship and a couple of escorts) on the Au


Auriga deployment to the USA.


h f


high. She ended 2010 as the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s ‘Ship of the Year’, a title she earned after winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Surface Ship


 Farewell to HMS Chatham, Manchester, Ark Royal and 800 NAS, pages 19-21


She was in the Hong Kong for the former colony’s return to Chinese rule, supported initial operations in Afghanistan over the winter of 2001-02 and was the host ship for the Royal Naval Reserve during the Trafalgar 200 Spithead review. As for Fort George’s wind-down, aside from de-storing there will be a farewell dinner for the ship’s sponsor Lady Slater and her husband Admiral Sir Jock Slater before the ship is finally disposed of.


will The big Northumberland family


THE trophy cabinet aboard HMS Northum- berland is bulging (well, a little fuller) courtesy of two ‘gongs’ the ship’s


company have earned. The first is the prize treasured among the anti-submarine warfare community: the ASW trophy. Although Northumberland


was sent east of Suez for eight months last year chiefly to support the international counter-piracy/ counter-terrorism mission, she kept her hand in at a Type 23’s original mission:


hunting


submarines. That reached its climax last summer with a major nine-day exercise in the Gulf of Oman with HMS Talent as the frigate’s prey. In addition to a real boat to


play with, the frigate hunted down a dummy submarine on two occasions.


The ship launched her


EMATT, or Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target – a 3ft-long device which looks like a small torpedo and simulates a boat, operating at pre- programmed speeds and depths, emitting noises like the real thing. Northumberland streamed her


towed array Sonar 2087 and sent her Merlin up with its Sonobuoys to track down the hi-tech device. Just for good measure, the


ship’s torpedo launchers fired two dummy Sting Rays (subsequently recovered) while the electronic anti-torpedo decoys were also fired, and the Sonar 2170 torpedo defence system was streamed on more than half a dozen occasions. All in all, quite a lot of pinging. In addition, the ship also collected reams of data on water depth, temperatures, salinity and the like.


experts at the Maritime Warfare Centre in HMS Collingwood and the UK Hydrographic Office in


All this info was passed back to


Taunton... and resulted in the ship’s Principal Warfare Officer (Underwater) Lt Cdr Burton receiving the ASW trophy from Cdre Richard Baum, the Naval Regional r


W rd al


Commander for Northern England, when the ship visited the North-East. The second


award went not to a department but two engineers. The Lady Anne Kerr


Trophy is presented every year by the ship’s sponsor to the sailor/department who’ve contributed the most to life on board.


engineers, POs Kev Philips and Iain Price who embodied the ship’s ‘minimum fuss, maximum effort’ approach to operations. The duo worked outside normal


In 2010 that was two marine Alex


gearbox which added an extra two knots to the Type 23’s top speed. The results of their toils were, said Northumberland’s CO Cdr Paddy Allen, “above and beyond expectation” and the two senior rates were worthy winners of the trophy, presented by Lady Kerr during that visit to the North East. That return to


Quay in North Shields apprising affiliates of deeds accomplished since the last time she visited. The Duke of Northumberland


hours to avoid disrupting the deployment as they overhauled one of the gas turbines and the


was the guest of honour. He not only chatted with the ship’s company but also members of the 5th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – the local Army unit. The fusiliers provided a Guard of Honour alongside the ship’s company,


inspected by the


duke on a chilly Tyneside jetty, before soldiers, sailors and VIPs decamped inside for a warm cuppa and a chat. Among the soldiers was Capt


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Chris Hall of Z Company... an ex-matelot who spent 21 years in the RN, including drafts to two Type 23s before leaving the Service and crossing over to the dark side. “I love being in the Army – and


I loved being in the Royal Navy. There are many more similarities than differences,” he said. “I caught up with some old


mates on board and every bit of the ship holds a thought or memory of friends, operations and events.” The frigate also hosted pupils from local schools, Sea Cadets, youth groups and potential recruits, plus Duchess Elizabeth, who served in the WRNS in World War 2 and who follows the frigate’s activities keenly. In addition, the ship opened her


gangway to visitors and sent her rugby team on to the pitch against Morpeth RFC.


In addition to these fairly typical


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events on an affiliate visit, there was one unusual ceremony held on board the frigate. The ship hosted a ‘citizenship


Tyneside – the first for the frigate since 2008 – saw Northumberland spend five days, appropriately, at Northumbrian


ceremony’ for people who’ve settled in this country to formally become part of the UK family – believed to be the first time one of Her Majesty’s ships has been the venue for such proceedings. The ceremonies have been held since the mid-Noughties, with prospective citizens asked to swear allegiance to the Queen and to pledge their loyalty to the UK and its laws and customs. On the return journey from the Tyne to Devonport,


ship’s manifest was ‘plus two’ as Northumbrian couple Keith and Lesley Newman climbed on board.


firm) and his wife (an antiques trader) won an auction helping a North East disability charity to spend four days on the warship. As well as receiving a full tour


boat, while Lesley donned chef’s whites in the galley to help the caterers prepare a curry.


Devonport with nothing but praise for Cdr Allen and his sailors. “We already had huge respect for the work the Royal Navy does at home and abroad, but our special time with them has really reinforced our sense of gratitude to all our Servicemen and women,” said Keith. “What struck me was the bond holding everyone together onboard, coupled with a great sense of pride in their ship. It was like being part of a big family.”


They stepped ashore in Keith (boss of a public relations the


In her 17-year career, the ship earned the Sword of Peace for her work helping flood victims in Mozambique in 2000, quickly followed by the peace mission to stablise Sierra Leone in the wake of civil war.


from? Well that would be the main mast of HMS Ocean, where it can be seen throughout 2011. Britain’s biggest warship was also deemed her most effective capital ship last year by the assessors from the Flag Offi cer Sea Training – people who are not easily pleased.


And which mast does it fl y


The helicopter assault ship squeezed a lot into last year, culminating in a fi ve-month, 16,000-mile deployment around the North and South Atlantic rim. That took the Mighty O initially to North America for amphibious operations with the Americans, then there was a spot of counter-drugs work in the Caribbean before crossing the Equator for a rare visit to Brazil and training with the South American nation’s marines. Then on the other side of the


ocean, the carrier visited Nigeria and Sierra Leone (where she’s still fondly remembered as the ‘ship of hope’ from her role in peacekeeping during the 2000 civil war), worked with sailors from half a dozen African nations, took part in more counter-drugs patrols and a fl eet review. The FOSTies didn’t just judge what Ocean physically accomplished, but also the goodwill and media effect the ship had in 2010. That meant considerable


coverage in the newspapers and on TV wherever the ship went on her travels (as well as by the press back home in the UK), plus Ocean’s webpages where it was not tales of derring do by commandos, WAFUs or sailors but the story of a cat which proved popular. Not even a live cat, but a stuffed one. Despite being an inanimate


of Northumberland, the couple were encouraged to ‘muck in’. Keith drove the Pacific 24 sea


furry object, the cunningly-titled ‘Ship’s Cat’ got up to all sorts of high jinx (sleeping, skydiving, sleeping, going for fl ights in the Lynx, sleeping), all meticulously recorded in a blog which “became one of the most widely-read defence internet sites”. Oh and we haven’t mentioned


the fi ve weeks in Norway for Exercise Cold Response, two months of Basic Operational Sea Training, a visit by the Queen and a three-month spell of maintenance. “If you wanted to illustrate the


sorts of things navies can do for you, just look at what Ocean did,” said her CO Capt Keith Blount as he received the Capital Ship Effectiveness Trophy from FOST himself, Rear Admiral Chris Snow.


Westminster pays her dues


VISITING London as we went to press was the nation’s ‘capital ship’, HMS Westminster. The Type 23 frigate was spending fi ve days alongside Canary Wharf,


renew ties with numerous affi liates in the London area. It’s been two years since the


allowing her to


Portsmouth-based warship last sailed up the Thames (back in 2009 it was for the London Boat Show), so there was quite a bit of catching up to do with those affiliates. They were given tours of the


ship, as were schoolchildren interested in a life in the Senior Service, and cadets from across the London metropolitan region. Any stay on the Thames by one of Her Majesty’s warships demands the payment of a barrel of rum to the Tower of London, upholding an ancient custom going back to the days when the fortifi cation’s guns provided protection to ships on the river. Westminster paid her dues and, being a nice chap, the Constable of the Tower allowed the sailors to join him in a tot or two.


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