NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2010


15


Testing times for Albion


Clyde, this is no ordinary landing craft. No, this is the Pacscat (pronounced ‘packs- cat’), a ‘turbo-boosted’ landing craft being tested by the Royal Marines and HMS Albion. How turbo-boosted? Well, up to four times the


really haven’t changed much CRASHING through the waters of the


speed of an ordinary Landing Craft Utility used by the amphibious flagship; the LCUs may be able to carry a Challenger II battle tank, but it trudges along, if you’re lucky, at a top speed of 8kts. Landing craft


since WW2. It’s taken a revolutionary hull design to bring speed to the party: the Partial Air Cushion-Supported CATamaran – a sort of hybrid hovercraft/catamaran. On paper, the 200ft craft should be able to carry up to fi ve of the Royals’ Viking armoured vehicles.


The Pacscat has been in the hands of RM Instow for a few months undergoing trials, but what it needed was a more practical workout. For that you need one landing platform dock (Albion), some green berets (Young Offi cers Batch 2009 and Recruit Troop 107 from CTCRM in Lympstone), some beaches (the exercise areas of Western Scotland), and some potential inclement weather (not entirely unheard of in the UK in the autumn...).


And so the prototype joined more conventional


landing craft on Exercise Wet Raider in and around Loch Ewe. Wet Raider, orchestrated from HMS Albion impressive operations room, was a


and her


mixture of mountain/amphibious training for the aforementioned Royals, plus elements of Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines, the Armoured Support Group and Albion’s inherent commando unit, 6 Assault Squadron RM. The trainee offi cer


s and marines from


Lympstone were in their fi nal stages of training and this intensive exercise – centred on an amphibious raid – was one of the fi nal hurdles the men would have to overcome before earning that coveted green beret.


Raiding is an important skill for commandos – the ability to insert troops in areas inaccessible to other land forces, attack an objective and then extract safely.


In this instance, the young offi cers and recruits were up against the local


militia – Somalian


Pirates in Scotland (SPIS) – played (with not a little overacting...) by FPGRM. Reeling from the credit crunch and tired of local cuisine, the pirates were threatening the UK’s nuclear deterrent and other key infrastructure


along Scotland’s west coast. The trainees planned and mounted raids against command nodes, logistics bases and observation posts, culminating in a company-size assault on the fi nal enemy stronghold further inland. HMS Albion was the staging post and command platform for these operations. The insertions and extractions were mainly carried out at night and involved using the full range of landing craft and infl atable raiding craft of 6 ASRM.


dastardly SPIS were defeated, naturally), the tired and muddy Marines were extracted, cleaned, fed and re-clothed by Albion’s ships company, ready for re-tasking – known as Operation Dry Out. “The effi cien


n’s –


in turning round these wet, tired and exhausted commandos was such that we could mount at least one major insertion per day and maintain this high operational tempo for a prolonged period,” said Capt Chris Waite RM, Offi cer Commanding the Support Troop on Albion. Among those toiling to help the Royals was LET William Atkinson who is afforded the lofty title of marine engineer offi cer of a landing craft, “much to the amusement of the Albion’s Commander E,” he says. Like Albion’s senior engineer he’s responsible for the “mechanical well-being” of his steed. “Once we have cleared the stern gate all eyes turn to me in the event of any machinery breakdowns,” LET Atkinson points out. Throughout Wet Raider, the leading hand – and his counterparts on Albion’s other landing craft – had to work under considerable pressure to ensure that the boats were ever-ready to meet the strict deadlines set by the amphibious programme. That often meant working hard throughout the night and sometimes simultaneously alongside the covert insertion of the commandos. All this landing craft activity also kept Albion’s ABU busy.


r


ABU? Amphibious Beach Unit – a small team of commandos whose mission it is to reconnoître the coastline and beaches to find a suitable landing spot.


“This is nearly always done under the cover of darkness; we can’t afford to be compromised or we risk ruining the whole operation,” explains Mne Scott ‘Scotty’ Walker. Clearly fatigued after a prolonged period of sleep deprivation, he describes last night’s ‘recce’.


cy of the ship’s team


Upon completion of each objective (the d,


“The weather was against us, it was freezing cold with strong winds. We were being battered by high waves crashing both us and the Zodiacs [small infl atable boats] into the rocks and leaving our kit and us totally soaked as we struggled ashore.”


Scotty and his comrades found a landing spot. The beach was fine. The egress – a steep slope – less so.


The ABU conducted its initial recce and eventually found a suitable beach to land the main assault, however leaving the beach would mean a rather large, steep hill to climb. “Not ideal when you are soaking wet carrying a bergen loaded with kit,” says Scotty.


ca Sc


“But it won’t be us ‘yomping’ up the hill to conduct the fi nal assault, it will be the young offi cers!” Throughout Wet Raider, the Zodiacs


proved ideally suited to getting men and their equipment ashore without being compromised.


proudly, adding: “This really has been the best exercise I have done in a while.”


a few hundred metres from the enemy position without being detected,” Scotty says


units are those LCUs again, this time serving as Forward Operating Bases for the reconnaissance teams and their infl atable boats, providing, not least among their services, hot food and drinks from the (rather small) galley. “You don’t want to get on the wrong side of 30 hungry, tired and cold marines,” LET Atkinson laughs nervously. “They soon appreciate me, though, once the Berko is all fi red up.’ Now if all this wasn’t enough to keep Albion’s


Key to successful operations by the beach “At one point, we landed a Troop only


rather like negotiating the Norwegian fjords. Also, the channel into the upper loch only becomes visible after the ship begins to wheel over for the approach – definitely not for the faint hearted.


The ship’s company gathered on the upper deck to witness the entrance to the loch – a welcome break from the busy operational tempo of Wet Raider. Lt Simon Shaw, Albion’s Second Navigator was given the task of ‘driving’ the ship into the loch.


“Normally only frigates or destroyers find themselves in Loch Torridon, not 18,000-ton, 177-metre-long assault ships,” he said. “With no leading lights or any buoys, the navigation into the loch was quite tricky and I had to rely on the traditional methods of sextant, stopwatch and ice-cold nerves. “As we went through the narrow gap, even


from the relatively high Bridge, all I could see was the granite rockface on either side!” Capt Morley added: “Navigation is a core


And what of the Pacscat some 1,200 words or so ago? Well, the trials team, led by Lt Col Simon Guyer RM (Retd), learned a lot from Wet Raider. “The aim of the trial was to demonstrate the practical utility, the advantages – and limitations – of this novel hull form, as well as proving its ability to operate from an assault ship such as Albion,” Lt Col Guyer explains.


ship’s company busy enough, the assault ship’s CO Capt James Morley decided to throw a spot of additional navigational training into the mix by paying an unscheduled visit to Loch Torridon (about 20 miles north of Kyle of Lochalsh). The loch is a regular (if not necessarily) popular haunt of Type 23s and Type 42s conducting specialist navigational training. At its narrowest the entrance to the upper loch is about 1,100ft across. And HMS Albion? Well, her beam is 95ft. So plenty of room to spare then… Manouevring is complicated by the fact that for the final wheel-over into the upper loch, there is only 120ft of safe water either side – and then it’s the steep rock face of the mountains. It’s all


“The trials have been extremely successful and the trials team has gained a great deal of knowledge both of what Pacscat can, and can’t, do.”


do? Well it can carry and load/unload a Viking as


Royal Marines young offi cers and recruits will be polishing their boots at Lympstone in preparation for their passing out parades; the Pacscat team will be analysing their trial results; and Albion will be alongside in her baseport for a short, but well-earned period of rest and maintenance.” We


ourselves... couldn’t have summed it up better “As you read this, the And what can the prototype fast landing craft


required. The next step is to conduct similar trials at Instow with a Challenger 2... So that was Wet Raider, a brief, but eventful few days in the life of an 18,500-ton assault ship. Says Capt Morley:


warfare skill and this was excellent training for my bridge team. It also shows Albion’s manoeuvrability and our capacity to operate very close in to the land.”


Pictures: LA(Phot) Luron Wright, HMS Albion, and SAC David ‘Cheap as Chips’ Dickinson, FRPU Clyde


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