2 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

HMS Dasher HMS Pursuer

Royal Marine Reserves

HMS Sabre/Scimitar

IMAT HMS Lancaster

HMS Chatham

HMS St Albans HMS Atherstone HMS Chiddingfold HMS Middleton HMS Pembroke HMS Grimsby RFA Bayleaf RFA Lyme Bay RFA Cardigan Bay

FASLANE Joint Warrior HMS Gannet HMS Queen Elizabeth ROSYTH HMS Clyde 800/801 NAS DEVONPORT

CULDROSE 771 NAS

YEOVILTON PORTSMOUTH

HMS Mersey HMS Severn HMS Tyne

HMS York RFA Wave Ruler

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

HMS Walney

HMS Middleton

HMS Albion

40 Cdo/845 NAS/846 NAS/ 854 NAS/FDG/MASU

Fleet Focus

THERE’S only one story on everyone’s lips this month... if they could pronounce it.

Instrumental to their operations – indeed all RN operations east of Suez – is the ability to board; training at HMS Raleigh has undergone a fundamental shake-up (see page 22). And as for flagship deployments, well, HMS Ark Royal left Portsmouth to lead Auriga 2010... but a certain ash cloud hit some of her work up (see page 6). Bomber crews will receive a ‘pin’ to recognise upholding the right of the line in Vanguard-class ballistic missile boats (see

page 4).

from a deployment east of Suez; to celebrate the fact the crew have commissioned a special whisky (see page 15). And staying with the Silent Service, HMS Turbulent is our ship

of the month (see page 12).

RFA Largs Bay is back in the UK after delivering aid to Haiti

(see page 4), while HMS Monmouth has returned from a six- month tour of duty in Iraqi waters (see page 7). And HMS Sutherland is back with a bang – literally. We’ve an impressive shot of her night gunnery serial off Scotland (see

page 8).

There’s the rare sight of all three fishery protection ships –

trials drones ahead of their impending deployments. Manchester is heading to the Caribbean (see right); Liverpool is Ark Royal’s guardian for Auriga. Future carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth continues to take shape. Her bow has been ‘launched’ and moved to Scotland to join the rest of the ship (see page 9). Meanwhile plans for her escorts, the replacement to Type 22 and 23 frigates, the Type 26 warship, have been unveiled (see page 9). In the Gulf, HMS St Albans has been conducting night-time helicopter training (see page 17) while sisters Chiddingfold and Atherstone have been exercising with Allied forces in Qatari

waters (see page 11).

Tyne, Mersey and Severn – exercising together in the Solent

(see page 15).

HM Ships Liverpool and Manchester both fired Sea Darts at

are due to be erected to Service personnel and civilians who have died in aid of scientific research in Antarctica (see page 23) while HMS York has been to the end of the earth, visiting South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (see pages 24-25). And finally... Say farewell to survey ship HMS Roebuck, a loyal and trusty servant of the nation which has decommissioned after a quarter of a century’s service (see page 13).

At the opposite end of the temperature scale, monuments

Any sailors or marines deploying to Afghanistan individually or in small groups must undergo thorough – and rather gory –

combat training (Individual Pre-Deployment Training) which

reaches its climax at Longmoor camp (see page 14). HMS Chatham freed Indian sailors held hostage for several days by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean (see page 21) while, further north, HMS Lancaster is patrolling ‘pirate alley’ in the middle of ‘pirate season’ (see opposite).

brought much of Europe to a grinding (or should that be grounding...) halt, it disrupted RN exercises and prompted a remarkable homecoming for HMS Albion, which ferried stranded troops and civilians from Spain to Portsmouth (see pages 4-5). Otherwise, there are three dominant RN stories at present: Afghanistan, pirates and flagship deployments. 40 Commando have taken charge of Sangin district as they spend six months attached to an Army battlegroup (see page

10).

Wanna be dartin’ somethin’

NOT everything which fl ies was kept earthbound by

Mount Eyjafjallajökull and its gigantic cloud of ash.

Like Sea Dart for instance. There was a salvo of the venerable air defence missiles racing through Scottish skies as two sisters tested their main armament. HM Ships Manchester (pictured

HMS Sceptre is due to pay off this month when she returns

above) and Liverpool are both heading across the Pond on deployment.

The pre-requisite for either tour of duty (Liverpool’s shepherding flagship Ark Royal for Auriga 2010, Manchester’s bound for the Caribbean on a drug-busting/ humanitarian aid mission) is that Sea Dart has been fired against a target. Both Type 42s fired two Sea

Darts at a remote-controlled drone target in the Scottish exercise areas in calm, but chilly conditions. For Manchester, commanded by Cdr Rex Cox, the spell in Scottish waters permitted a chance to exercise with patrol ship HMS Severn... once commanded by a Lt Cdr Rex Cox. Severn’s gearing up for a spot of Operational Sea Training (conducted by FOST North) and used the encounter with the Busy Bee to carry out some Officer of the Watch manoeuvres. As Manchester’s bound for the

Caribbean in hurricane season, she’s been getting in some disaster relief practice. The ship’s company underwent

three weeks of intensive training in the West Country before heading to Scotland. Directed Continuation Training comes courtesy of those nice folk at FOST, who also test RN (and

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foreign) vessels to the limit with Basic Operational Sea Training. DCT’s like a condensed version of BOST, but tailored to meet the specifi c needs of a ship about to deploy.

The Busy Bee will either be conducting board and search operations (in conjunction with a specialist team from the US Coast Guard) or clearing up in the wake of Nature’s fury. So three weeks of board and search/disaster relief training it is, then.

And for good measure, the FOSTies threw in a bit of fi re, fl ood and battle damage aboard the destroyer to keep the ship’s company on their toes 24 hours a day.

Disaster relief training comes

courtesy of a special site at Bull Point, just around the corner from ‘frigate alley’ in Devonport, where all manner of calamities can be simulated – cars trapped in rivers, babies trapped in collapsed buildings,

raging fi res, downed

power lines and general chaos. And barely a mile away in the Lynher estuary lies HMS Brecon, key to RN board and search training.

The three weeks were wrapped up with a large-scale battle damage

exercise overlaid with

air, surface and submarine attack, testing Manchester’s men and women’s ability to cope with the very worst imaginable (simulated) catastrophe, all witnessed by senior inspecting offi cer, Capt Malcolm Cree, FOST’s Director South.

● Cradle of life... A leading hand from HMS Manchester carries a (plastic) baby away from a fl ooded building at Bull Point

“Although this period of training has been challenging, the ship’s company have approached it with their typical enthusiasm and determination and can be justifi ably proud of their

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performance,” said Cdr Cox. “The ship’s demonstrated that she is ready to deploy and be ready to provide support to the UK’s overseas territories in the Caribbean.”

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