2 NAVY NEWS, JULY 2007
Noble Mariner HMS Albion
Ballistic missile task force
submarine
HMS Dasher
HMS Ledbury HMS Pursuer
Orion task force
700M NAS HMS Sabre/Scimitar
HMS Northumberland
HMS Montrose
HMS Scott 845 and 846 NAS, 539 ASRM
RFA Wave Knight
HMS Sutherland
HMS Ocean
HMS Monmouth
HMS Richmond
HMS Cornwall
HMS Ramsey
HMS Blyth
RFA Bayleaf
HMS Southampton
RFA Sir Bedivere
814 NAS
HMS Kent
857 NAS
FASLANE ROSYTH
HMS Quorn
HMS Echo
HMS Clyde
HMS Explorer
HMS Astute HMS Dumbarton Castle
HMS Edinburgh
PORTSMOUTH
HMS Exeter
DEVONPORT
HMS Tyne
Satellite imagery courtesy of NASA
FFleet Focusleet Focus
Hello, goodbye, Clyde
MY COLLEAGUES will chastise me for using the word, but
NEW patrol ship HMS Clyde has paid her fi rst While some sailors hosted locals aboard, then starting the long journey south.
welcome to a ‘bumper’ issue of Navy News which, like the
– and probably last – visit to the river for which including civic dignitaries and school children, Built and owned by the VT Group and leased
RN, casts it net across the globe this month.
she was named. a party headed to the Sir Gabriel Wood to the Royal Navy, Clyde will take over from
And perhaps no-one in the Senior Service cast their net
Clyde heads south to the Falklands this Mariners Home in Greenock, home Dumbarton Castle as the Falklands’ guardship
summer where she will in all likelihood spend to some 30 elderly sailors – merchant later this year.
wider than the men and women of 815 NAS. We haven’t
her entire career as the islands’ guardship. seamen and ex-RN – to share dits of The aim is to carry out all maintenance work
the space on this map to champion their global mission, She is, however, affi liated with the borough the sea and to spruce up the gardens on her in the South Atlantic, rather than bring
but we have on pages 30-32. of Inverclyde and it was only right that its for the summer. her home every three years as the Navy has
And talking of global missions... HMS Monmouth’s Far
people see their ship before the 8,000-mile With the visit to Scotland done with the existing Falkland
East deployment continues apace; the frigate has most
journey south. over, Clyde paid a brief visit Islands vessels.
recently found herself in Brunei (see opposite).
Lt Cdr Simon Hopper and his 40-strong to Portsmouth, her ‘home’
Equally varied is HMS Southampton’s tour of duty,
ship’s company took Clyde to Greenock port and birthplace, before ● Cllr Michael McCormick,
for four days. beginning a month of Provost (mayor) of Inverclyde
half-way around the world. She is steadily making her way
Despite the inclement Bank Holiday amphibious warfare and welcomes HMS Clyde to
to the Falklands via the Caribbean and Pacific, having weather the visit nevertheless provided aviation training and Greenock
most recently visited Peru (see page 46). welcome respite for the sailors after
She will take over from HMS Edinburgh (crewed by the
undergoing operational sea training to
men and women of HMS Exeter) which has been heavily
prepare them for their Falklands mission.
involved in Falklands commemorations... as has Exeter
herself (crewed by the men and women of Edinburgh in
turn); see pages 15-17 for coverage.
They said it couldn’t be done, but HMS Albion proved
them wrong by becoming the largest foreign warship to
squeeze into the heart of St Petersburg (see page 8).
Albion’s visit to the great Russian city came at the end
of NATO war games, Exercise Noble Mariner, which saw
HMS Ark Royal and Illustrious and 40 Cdo lead the
sizeable RN/RFA/RM input alongside Allied navies in the
Baltic. Our three-page report begins on page 25.
Talking of task forces, the Orion group – HM Ships
Hurworth, Atherstone, Shoreham and Walney plus
mother ship RFA Cardigan Bay – has moved from
the Peloponnese to Turkey on the latest stage of their
minehunting deployment (see page 10).
The RN’s largest warship HMS Ocean has been
operating with the US Marine Corps’ Wild Geese, while
one of her 700M NAS Merlins disembarked to show the
people of Washington the helicopter which will soon ferry
their President around (see page 7).
Survey ship HMS Endurance finally disappears from
our map after her lengthy winter deployment, having
safely returned home to Pompey (turn to page 6).
Also home after a seemingly interminable period away is
HMS Echo. Within days of arriving in Devonport she was
off to Glasgow to survey the Clyde and its approaches
(see page 6).
Northumberland’s Mediterranean blitz
Another vessel homeward-bound following a drawn-
out mission is HMS Sutherland; she has handed over
A WEEK is a long time in with medium and close-range frigate’s sea boat. the Strait to north Africa and two
Gulf duties to her sister HMS Richmond, who has now
politics.
gunnery exercises (air defence Surprisingly, this was the ship’s ‘defence industry days’ in Algiers
joined HMS Cornwall off Iraq (see page 5) where RFA
And in the life of HMS
exercises were often thrown into fi rst visit to Gibraltar since 2003. where she hosted British fi rms
Sir Bedivere and the Naval Transition Team are hard at
Northumberland, too.
the mix just to keep the students Most sailors headed across the looking to sell their wares to local
work training the Iraqi Navy (see page 24).
The Devonport-based frigate
on their toes). Spanish border to La Linea, but 30 fi rms and organisations.
squeezed a myriad of activities
Also tested were the Naval hardy souls decided no visit to the The lightning trip to Gibraltar
The crew of HMS Ledbury have introduced a new game
into a week of frantic training off
Gunfi re Support Forward Rock would be complete without a and Algiers proved to be among
into RN folklore; they’ve also been busy checking on
Gibraltar, the highlight of a brief
Observers of 148 Commando run up the 2½ mile winding track the last acts of Cdr Tom Guy’s
fishermen off Holland (see page 7). Mediterranean deployment. Battery – the specialist artillery to the top of the mountain which command after two years.
Many happy returns to the good folk of RNAS Culdrose
Northumberland headed to spotters who go ashore ahead of gives the colony its sobriquet. “While I am sad to be leaving
who have celebrated their 60th birthday this month
the colony chiefl y for a week of an assault/bombardment before CPO Radcliffe and Clubz posted my team, this brief Mediterranean
(actually the anniversary was officially April, but the
gunnery and warfare students to picking out targets for the guns of the fastest time – 26m 56s. deployment allowed me to go out
weather’s better in June). See page 13.
complete their various courses. the Fleet. The ship also hosted Cdre Allan on a high,” he added.
And finally (and a few years late, admittedly) HMS
Fifteen prospective gun They dropped in – literally – on Adair, the outgoing Governor of “I’m sure that the ship will
controllers and captains of the Northumberland, tumbling out Gibraltar, as he bade farewell to continue to show the spirit and
Astute appears for the first time on our map. We have
gun fi led aboard, as well as nine of an RAF Hercules at 2,000 feet his staff. professionalism that I have valued
extensive coverage of her launch on page 9 and in our principal warfare offi cer students. above the Med, and were promptly With the visit to the Rock over, so much during my time in
pull-out supplement. All found themselves tested plucked out of the water by the Northumberland headed across command.”
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