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STREAKING vapour trails across the Devonian sky, a Hawk trainer roars towards HMS Westminster
during the annual showcase of the RN’s panoply of talent.
More than 700 sailors and naval aviators laid on a show of force for the brightest brains in Britain’s
armed forces to give the Army and RAF an insight into the capability of today’s Senior Service.
Staff College Sea Days are the RN’s traditional showcase for students at the Royal Military
Defence Academy in Shrivenham.
Around 600 personnel left Oxfordshire to spend time aboard flagship HMS Ark Royal, sister
frigates Westminster and Sutherland, destroyer HMS Liverpool, and tanker RFA Orangeleaf,
as four days of demonstrations were staged in the Plymouth exercise areas.
On the shore, Royal Marines from 42 Commando and 539 and 4 Assault Squadrons
and 10 Training Squadron demonstrated amphibious operations, while in the skies
Harriers from the Naval Strike Wing, RAF Tornadoes and RN Hawks roared over
the fleet as Lynx and Merlin hunted for submarines.
Besides the academy students, Ark hosted the Commander-in-Chief
Fleet Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent and Armed Forces Minister Bob
Ainsworth. The former knows a thing or 2,000 about what the RN is
capable of; the latter is relatively new in post and is rapidly learning.
The ‘show’ laid on for students and VIPs alike included a sub
hunt by a Merlin (which proved unsuccessful, not surprisingly,
as there wasn’t actually a boat committed to Sea Days),
surveillance operations, anti-piracy work, a boarding party
searching a blockade runner, and simulated air attacks.
It wasn’t all about air power and big ships, however.
Some of the Shrivenham students were given a taste
of what the smaller vessels in the Fleet can do,
courtesy of minehunting operations by HMS
Pembroke and HMS Hurworth.
Ark arrived in Plymouth hot on the heels
of her participation in Exercise Grey
Heron, a key test of logistic support for
the Royal Marines and their aerial/
afloat ‘delivery system’ (see pages
16 and 17).
Picture: PO Bob Sharples,
HMS Westminster
● (l-r) Smoke belches as HMS Liverpool’s 4.5in main gun unleashes a shell; HMS Westminster’s Merlin prepares to attack a (dummy) submarine with a (dummy) torpedo); Royal Marines prepare to offl oad one of
the Army’s Challenger II tanks on the beach in Plymouth Pictures: PO Bob Sharples and PO(Phot) Sean Clee, RN Photographer of the Year
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