NAVY NEWS, JULY 2007 7
An Audacious
beginning
THE SILENT Service will get
at least one more Astute-class
submarine with an order placed
for HMS Audacious.
Whitehall has paid defence
giant BAE Systems £200m to
start work on Audacious, which
will begin to take shape later this
year in the fi rm’s huge ship hall at
its Barrow-in-Furness yard.
The contract with BAE will
cover initial construction work on
calling
Audacious until March next year.
The MOD and BAE are in talks
over the remainder of the contract
ORDINARILY, you don’t want birds on your fl ight deck;
– Astute alone has cost more than
£1bn – which is due to be signed
they tend to play havoc with rotors and engines.
later next year.
The Wild Geese, however, “A warm welcome awaits
HM Submarines Ambush and
were welcomed with open the Wild Geese the next
Artful are also rapidly taking
arms by the men and time they make their
shape in Barrow.
women of HMS Ocean nest in Ocean.”
All four Astutes will be
as she prowled the And while
equipped with Spearfi sh
Caribbean for drug- Americans have
torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise
runners. been embarking on
missiles – they will carry more of
The US Marine Ocean, Brits have
each weapon than the Swiftsure
Corps’ HMM 774 been disembarking in
or Trafalgar-class boats they
Squadron – The Wild America.
replace – and be the stealthiest
Geese – dropped in A 700M Merlin
submarines the RN has sent to
with their CH46 Sea headed to US Naval Air
sea. On a personal level, all 98
Knights for two weeks Station Patuxent River
crew will have their own beds,
of training with the RN’s largest (better known to Americans as
bringing an end to a century of
warship. Pax River) to show itself off to
‘hot bunking’.
A sort of small maritime version military and civilian dignitaries,
Audacious takes her name
of the Chinook, the Sea Knight including Dr Delores Etter,
from a 74-gun third-rate which
has been in service with the US Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
served under Nelson, a Victorian
military since the 1960s. who was treated to a flight in the
ironclad which served on the
The Wild Geese joined Ocean whirlybird with her entourage.
China Station and, perhaps
– or the ‘Mighty O’ as her crew A variant of the Merlin will
most famously, a Great War
are calling her now (a new one on serve as the next presidential
dreadnought which fell victim to
us – Ed) – to test the ability of the helicopter (Marine One) so there
a mine off Northern Ireland in
US Marine Corps to work with is considerable interest across the
October 1914.
Britain’s amphibious forces. Pond in the helicopter and what
The Admiralty tried to hush
And on a more personal it can do.
up the battleship’s loss – an
level, it gave the US marines an With the dignitaries suitably
impossible task as her sinking
opportunity to get to know wowed, the nitty gritty of the
was witnessed by passengers of
some of their British visit to Washington began
the RMS Olympic, sister of the
counterparts... as well as with the Merlin crews
Titanic.
Ocean’s sailors. chatting to US Navy
The Sea Knights took and Presidential Flight
marina See our supplement for a
part in numerous fliers about tactics and
feature on Astute’s launch
exercises with Ocean’s features of the aircraft
Ledbury goes
700M NAS Merlins to look out for when
● Sadly for LA Margerison, no-one wanted to join in his Mexican Wave... A Sea Knight prepares to touch
and 854 NAS Sea it enters service with
down on Ocean’s fl ight deck Picture: LA(Phot) Ray Jones, HMS Ocean
Kings, and the twin- the USMC from next
Dutch
rotored birds became year.
a regular sight as they No visit to the
flew circuits around US capital would be
the assault ship’s flight complete without some
FISH not underwater explosives
deck. sightseeing.
have dominated the recent
“The Wild Geese’s time The 700 fliers were given
activities of minehunter HMS
aboard was hugely successful permission to use Washington
Ledbury, currently ensuring
and proved the ability of British DC’s helicopter routes to set down
trawlermen abide by the rules.
warships to quickly embark and their aircraft outside the Pentagon,
The Portsmouth-based Hunt-
assimilate aircraft from the US before flying on to Andrews Air
class warship has focused her
Marine Corps,” said Ocean’s CO Force Base in Maryland, home
efforts this spring in waters from
Capt Russ Harding. of Air Force One, and where a
the Thames Estuary to the Tyne
“Our deployment to the Merlin in presidential dark blue
and as far east as the Dogger
Caribbean is showing all the and white will become a regular
Bank.
benefits of teamwork, and this sight in coming years as it ferries
A web of information assists
has been another gleaming America’s leader to and from the
Ledbury (and other fi shery
example. Whitehouse.
protection vessels) in their sweeps
of European waters.
The Marine Fisheries Agency
e-mails regular updates of the
locations of vessels, whilst the
agency’s spotter aircraft radios
updates to ships on patrol.
If a vessel is suspected of
breaking the rules, or if it has not
been inspected by an RN team
for a while, a boarding party will
investigate.
And so it was that a team from
Ledbury found themselves aboard
the French trawler Tigers II off
Flamborough Head.
The boarding party discovered
● A Merlin of 700M NAS prepares to touch down outside the
numerous infringements of net
Pentagon
rules and rather than issue the
skipper with a stern warning,
decided to detain the vessel.
Tigers II was escorted into
Grimsby where her captain faced
Floating Bulwark of the island
the magistrates and received a
hefty fi ne for breaking fi shing
LANDING assault ship HMS “The success of this
laws.
Bulwark is back at sea complicated and
It’s not been all fi sh for
after nine months out demanding work has
Ledbury. There’s been beer as
of action undergoing a been as a direct result
well. Well, beer for some and not
revamp in Devonport. of a lot of hard work
for others, as a barbecue aboard
News from Bulwark by a wide range of
also involved a game of ‘beer or
has been relatively people,” said CO
no beer’, a quiz rather loosely
quiet since she Capt Jeremy
based on Noel Edmonds’ TV
came back from Blunden.
game show Deal or No Deal (and
the Gulf and “It’s good to
fronted on Ledbury by a Noel
Mediterranean last be able to take
lookalike, so we’re told).
summer, but that’s Bulwark to sea for
There was probably beer
because an army the first time.”
too on a visit to Den Helder
of workers has been Now she’s back
in Holland, which for many
swarming over her. at sea, the team from
members of the ship’s company
The shipwrights FOST are keen to see
provided the opportunity to visit
and electricians have what the ship’s company
Amsterdam which was, in good
overhauled all the ship’s is made of; Operational Sea
RN euphemisms, “an interesting
landing craft, fitted a new Training is lined up for Bulwark
and unique run ashore”.
gantry crane to move kit and in September.
And despite currently being
ammunition around swiftly in Before then, however,
attached to the fi shery protection
her dock, enhanced her high- there’s a visit to Newcastle to
unit, Ledbury hasn’t forgotten her
voltage electric propulsion look forward to, catching with
roots as a warship. She practised
system and generally given affiliates in the nearby County
her battle skills with a gunnery
Bulwark a makeover. of Durham.
exercise off the Isle of Wight.
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