NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

Sisters in law (enforcement)

WHAT come in threes?

those in twos...

maintenance period.

Mile Islands. Kings of Orient. Dimensions. Blind mice. Stooges. Little pigs. River-class patrol vessels.

the latter... but HMS Clyde is an enhanced variant, so strictly speaking doesn’t count.

exercising together. Her Majesty’s Ships Mersey, Severn

s Admittedly there are four of

Plus she wasn’t in town for a rare get-together by the RN’s three

Not buses, obviously. You only get Trios. Triplets. Tenors. Degrees.

After embarking the Captain Mine Warfare, Fishery Protection and Diving, Capt Mark Durkin, plus some of his staff and a team from the Flag Offi cer Sea Training, the combined exercises begin in earnest. First up, fend off the killer tomatoes (a common foe in the Solent…). Mersey launched a large red infl atable before the trio took turns to dispatch this (rather docile) enemy.

fi hery protection ships

and Tyne are often at sea at the same time (they’re on operations four out of every fi ve days a year)… just not together.

Twice the ships passed

But in the Portsmouth Exercise Areas, the triumvirate met up for a squadron exercise. Severn and Tyne had just fi nished a spot of fi shery protection duties, while Mersey was emerging from her annual

the target, each sending 200 rounds from 20mm and upwards of 1,000 rounds from the machine- guns into the tomato which was fully defl ated by the end of the gunnery practice.

Next up, Offi cer of the Watch manoeuvres and a photo exercise, plus some winch transfers courtesy of a Mk8 Lynx from 702 NAS, the Lynx training squadron.

Quite often it’s some poor

unsuspecting rookie who gets roped in for dangling off a helicopter’s winch. But not on this occasion. No, the aircrew had the responsibility of lowering CINC Fleet, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, plus his fl ag lieutenant.… and the ship’s company of HMS Severn had the responsibility of receiving the two offi cers safely.

Which they did (Phew – Ed). That concluded the exer- cise and so it was back into Portsmouth.

“Every one involved, from all three ships’ companies benefi ted from the exercise and honed skills familiar to all sailors. This was a great opportunity and hopefully will become a regular fi xture in the life of the Fishery Protection Squadron,” said Mersey’s navigator Lt Chris Wood. “Weeks of planning were involved to

ensure our three ships, which normally operate independently of other naval units, were in the same place at the same

time so we could make the most of the opportunity to practise skills we seldom use – co-ordinated gunnery, tactical communications, helicopter transfers or close-in manoeuvring.”

The exercise was the highlight of a get-together for the fi shery protection squadron lasting several days. It saw the command teams of the three ships share their experiences with experts from the Marine Fisheries Agency.

While senior fi ures were locked in conferences, the rest of the ship’s companies were locked in combat in the sport arena: bucket ball (think: basketball with a bucket) and Swedish longball (think: cricket merged with baseball). HMS Severn claimed the honours.

g

ery convention closed with an all-ranks dinner dance for sailors, squadron staff, MFA employees and staff from BAE Systems who own and maintain the three ships, with music provided by the RM jazz band.

Picture: LA(Phot) Guy Pool, RNAS Yeovilton

The fi sh

15

Dram-atic end for Sceptre

WHAT fi ner way to celebrate the magnifi cent service HMS Sceptre has given her nation over three decades than a nice dram? Not any old dram, but one specially-commissioned to mark the demise of the last Swiftsure. The Faslane-based hunter- killer – currently on silent service east of Suez – pays off later this year after 32 years’ service. She’s the oldest active British

warship and the last of a class of boats which traces its heritage back to the early 70s. As such, there’s going to be quite a celebration to mark her passing. To help pay for the farewell celebrations, the boat commissioned 500 bottles of 12-year-old Highland single malt from local fi rm Clyde Whiskies. Each numbered bottle features the code ‘Dolphin 100’…We’ll let Sceptre’s WO2 Justin Beattie explain.

“The Dolphin code was an old-school way of submarine COs communicating with each other. I particularly like 52d. Feel free to google the code; there are various versions, none for the easily offended.” Well, it would be rude not to accept the challenge…

52. If you provide the fresh water, I’ll provide:

a. Soap. b. Towels. c. 60 dirty bodies. d. Whiskey. e. All of the above.

“With the passing of Sceptre ends an era,” says her CO Cdr Steve Waller. “For more than 30 years, Swiftsure-class submarines have been undertaking all manner of operations for the Royal Navy and the UK as a whole. This is a fi tting memento.” To reserve your bottle, e-mail

WO2 Beattie at 380-nuc6@a. dii.mod.uk. Bottles are £38 each and will be sold on a fi rst-come, fi rst-served basis. The small profi t made on each sale will go to the decommissioning fund.

Royals mimic CIMIC

GREEN beret Maj Matt Williams discusses a route through the snow-bedecked woods of Virginia with Mne Pannu Jaskaran as Royal Marine Reservists gear up for deployment to Afghanistan. The part-time marines headed to Camp

Pickett, 50 miles southwest of Richmond, to join Canadian and American troops for a fortnight of pre-deployment training. Some three dozen Royal Marine

Reservists are deploying to Afghanistan this spring on Operation Herrick 12, the latest roulement of British forces in Helmand. They flew across the Pond for the two-

week-long Exercise Southbound Trooper X, an annual exercise run at the US Army Training Centre at Camp Pickett. Under the exercise’s scenario – based on the experiences of Canadian forces – the reservists were given an area in an Afghan province where security had been established.

They had to decide how best to build up a relationship with locals by nurturing/ rebuilding amenities and facilities to allow the government to start functioning properly and effectively.

That pretty much mirrors what the CIvil MIlitary Co-ordination teams – better known as CIMIC – do in theatre.

minds’ aspects of the exercise, there was also some full-blown combat, notably the ‘kill house’.

Aside from the ‘hearts and

who wear black typically – in the art of urban combat.

They’re used to train troops – the guys

“The kill house was obviously the highlight,” said Cpl Gus Martin of RMR Scotland. “Back home they are few and far between. “You pretty much have to be Special

Maj Matt Williams, Offi cer in Charge of RMR Bristol’s training company, and a former regular Royal who’s served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Southbound Trooper had been “a great experience, a further opportunity to experience working with other nations – which in the current operational climate is particularly important.”

Forces to get regular training with them, so to get that facility in the package is pretty good.”

Picture: Sgt Justin Paul Howe, US Army

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