2 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2011
HMS Puncher/Express HMS Scott HMS Sabre/Scimitar
RFA Wave Ruler 206 Flight
HMS Bangor HMS Liverpool HMS Ocean RFA Fort Rosalie
HMS Somerset HMS Monmouth
FASLANE ROSYTH HMS Albion DEVONPORT
CULDROSE 771 NAS
PORTSMOUTH HMS Bulwark HMS Daring Satellite imagery courtesy of NASA Fleet Focus
carrier HMS Ocean along with destroyer HMS Liverpool is profiled on page 6 (the former has re-taken her place in the line following maintenance, the latter escorted Free Libya’s new flagship into Tripoli), while the smallest RN presence in the region, minehunter HMS Bangor, is not forgotten (see page 7). From Afghanistan we hear about some of the good work going on between the local people and 3 Commando Brigade to build goodwill and trust in the country’s future, and the motivational power of the Royal Marines Band Service to bolster the troops on the ground in the landlocked country (see page 8). The other enduring focus of RN attention is east of Suez, where the navies of the world are mustered to protect global sea lanes. Sisters HMS Monmouth and Somerset have swapped places, with the Black Duke now homeward bound (pages 14 and 15). In the Gulf, fellow Type 23 HMS St Albans is on ‘charm
24-25) – the youngest of the grandes dames of the Type 42s left the snow and ice of the Falklands and South Georgia for a mid- deployment break in the rather warmer environs of South Africa. In time, the Fortress of the Sea will be replaced by the Type 45
offensive’, calling on up to ten fishing vessels daily as she looks to win hearts and minds – and learn about daily life on the open waters of the region (on page 10). Not to be outdone, minehunter HMS Pembroke has been showing what she can do – to staff at the RN’s regional command centre and Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt (see page 10). But let’s not forget the small ships of the P2000 fleet, for whom the summer is the busiest period. HMS Express and Puncher enjoyed probably the plum deployment of all the university boats, attending Kiel Week before continuing to Poland (see page 28), while closer to home HMS Explorer was practising with RAF Search and Rescue crews on the Humber (see page 13). There are no foreign ports of call for HMS Dasher, our ship of the month (see page 12), but a vital job protecting the Navy’s ultimate weapon on the Clyde. There’s a splash of colour on page 9, where the Navy’s newest ice-ship HMS Protector is being put through her paces ready for her deployment to the icy south later this year. The beaches of Dorset and Hampshire have witnessed the pounding of heavy boots, with demonstrations by Royal Marine Reservists on the beach in Bournemouth (see pages 20-21) and exercises by the full-timers from assault ship HMS Bulwark and RFA Mounts Bay on Browndown Beach, (see page 23) as Bulwark completed training to take over as Britain’s flagship... ...A role presently fulfilled by her sister HMS Albion, which has been celebrating her tenth birthday in Liverpool and Chester (see page 5). Destroyer HMS Edinburgh features in our centre pages (pages
destroyers, the latest of which, HMS Dragon, made her maiden appearance in Portsmouth (see opposite), while HMS Dauntless was the star attraction at the DSEI defence fair in London – the first time one of the class has sailed up the Thames. As for the lead 45, HMS Daring, she hopped across the Channel to visit her affiliated island of Guernsey (see page 5). Last but not least, since it is now the festive season (well, it is according to the local supermarket anyway…) don’t forget to post pressies to loved ones who are deployed in good time. The nice folk at British Forces Post Office explain how on page 29.
SO THAT’S the end of summer, 2011. And quite eventful its waning weeks were, dominated by events in Afghanistan and off Libya, as the men and women of the Naval Service – Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary – continued to make sacrifices to bring stability to those troubled lands. The work supporting the UN mission off Libya from helicopter
Block party on the Tyne
YOU wait three years for Britain’s next generation aircraft carrier to take shape and then two massive sections are finished in a week… Just days after the largest segment
Now everybody’s heard about the bird...
THIS is a Seabird unlike any you’ve seen before – unless you’re a naval hydrographer. Which is exactly what LS Curtis Morris of HMS Echo is. The survey recorder – charged with collecting scientific data from the world’s oceans – lowers the hi-tech piece of kit into the waters of the Gulf on the latest stage of the ship’s epic two-year deployment. The Devonport-based survey ship is enjoying an extended period east of Suez helping to update charts of the region’s waters and gathering key data about the characteristics of the seas. The ship’s multi-beam echo sounder and side-scan sonars have already scanned miles and miles of ocean floor. The multi-beam provides the big picture, the side-scan is used to investigate contacts of interest detected on the seabed and provide more detailed information. To date the ‘double act’ has located
shipwrecks, huge underwater mountains, and oil pipelines, feeding all the information collected back to the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton, where Admiralty Charts are produced.
conditions, something which isn’t necessarily guaranteed in the height of summer in the Gulf. Although outside temperatures often reach
the high 40s Celsius – demanding for the ship’s company working outside and for the air conditioning plants trying to keep Echo and her sailors cool, which they have done thanks to the sterling efforts of the engineers – the survey vessel has been buffeted by the shamal, a seasonal wind which blows across Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The shamal brings sand and dust. At worst, wind+sand = sandstorm; at best, the high levels of dust in the air can severely reduce visibility, putting great strain on the bridge team as small vessels often do not loom out of the gloom until they’re particularly close
In the case of the Seabird, it is left in the sea to conduct ‘profiling’: it measures the temperature, salinity and pressure at various depths. To use Seabird you need relatively benign
It’s not all sand and dust, however. The ship’s company have enjoyed some downtime in Dubai, where essential maintenance was also carried out on the 3,500-tonne vessel to allow her to remain away from the UK for so long. The other key factor in ensuring Echo can complete a two-year deployment is to rotate her ship’s company. Of the 72 souls assigned to the ship, only 48 are aboard at any one time; the remaining third are in Britain undergoing training and courses or enjoying leave with loved ones.
to Echo.
yet of HMS Queen Elizabeth was towed up the Forth (page 7 of our September edition), another huge section of the ship was unveiled along the East Coast on Tyneside. The carrier’s hangar was turned into a function room for an official reception to celebrate the completion of Centre Block 03, a 3,000-tonne piece of the carrier which comprises some of its flight deck and cavernous hangar among other compartments. The 63-metre-long (206ft) block stands six metres (20ft) tall and is 40 metres (131ft) wide. It’s taken 18 months and half a million man hours to complete – and was finished five weeks ahead of schedule by shipwrights at A&P in Hebburn, the last yard on the Tyne building warships. A&P won a £55m order to build segments of Queen Elizabeth and her sister Prince of Wales – it’s one of six yards involved in the mammoth shipbuilding programme. Overseeing the construction on the
Tyne is A&P Tyne Project Director Darren Brown who was a teenage apprentice in the drawing office at Swan Hunter when HMS Ark Royal was built three decades ago. “I never thought I’d be involved in another aircraft carrier, particularly the size of this one – it’s much bigger than Ark Royal and it’s brought shipbuilding back to the Tyne,” he says.
“It’s been great for the yard, the
workforce and the community. The yard has been buzzing – it reminds you of the old days when shipbuilding was the main industry on the Tyne. “To know you’ve been part of
building something this impressive fills everyone at the yard with a sense of pride. It’s been a real boost to morale.”
Deputy Commander-in-Chief
Fleet Vice Admiral George Zambellas was guest of honour at the ceremony marking the block’s completion. He thanked the A&P team for
their “hard work” in completing “an impressive feat of engineering”. A couple of weeks after the official
unveiling, the block was transported up the East Coast into Rosyth to join the other finished sections of Queen Elizabeth.
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HMS Gannet YEOVILTON
HMS Explorer HMS Dauntless
HMS Clyde RFA Black Rover
Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas HMS Edinburgh
HMS St Albans HMS Turbulent HMS Echo HMS Quorn HMS Middleton HMS Pembroke HMS Ramsey RFA Fort Victoria RFA Diligence RFA Lyme Bay
3 CDO BDE/845 NAS/846 NAS/ 847 NAS/854 NAS/FDG/1710 NAS
Naval Party 1022
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