6 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2007
Plus 4s ready for action
All hail the ale
on Lancaster
BEER is going down particularly
well aboard the good ship
Lancaster... not least because a
AFTER four years on-and-
new brew bears the ship’s name.
off in Iraq, the Junglie Sea
● A Sea King Mk 4 Plus with newly-fi tted special rotor blades kicks up the Cypriot sand Picture: Patrick Allen, Jane’s Information Group
Lancaster Best, fittingly
Kings of 846 Naval Air
produced by Lancaster Brewery,
is sold in honour of the Red Rose
Squadron have swapped warship (each bottle features
one theatre of war for
the ship’s crest emblazoned on a
another.
battleship grey label).
The Yeovilton-based green
The brewery had hoped
giants head for Afghanistan with
to unveil the tipple when the
the Joint Helicopter Force as the
warship visited Liverpool earlier
number of RN personnel in the
this year... except a change in the
country mushrooms over the
operational programme meant
winter (see page 5).
Lancaster didn’t sail up the
The Junglies were told back in
Mersey after all.
January, as they conducted Arctic
Instead, Lancaster’s mayor
training in northern Norway,
Helen Helme launched the beer
that they should prepare for a
in the presence of sailors who
completed a charity cycle ride
deployment to Afghanistan.
from the Solent to her city.
That meant bespoke training
Several (now empty) crates
– and bespoke equipment.
were loaded aboard the
For a start, all the Sea Kings
Portsmouth-based Type 23 frigate
needed new rotor blades –
before a whistle-stop autumn tour
including specially-designed tail
of Scandinavia and the Baltic.
rotors courtesy of Westlands.
It was proudly poured by
Add defensive aid suites and
the ship’s company at official
Display Night Vision Goggles and,
receptions during visits to Oslo,
hey presto, you have the Sea King
Kiel and Gdynia.
Mk 4 Plus.
Operations in a combat
environment demanded the
defensive improvements.
Sutherland’s
The replacement rotors permit
the Sea King to operate in the
Channel dash
challenging Afghan environment
at altitudes ordinarily beyond its
FRIGATE HMS Sutherland took
ability.
herself to the tricky waters of the
While their helicopters were
Channel Islands to test future
being revamped ahead of the
navigators.
mission to come, the men and
The Type 23 warship spent
women of 846 – motto Semper
several days negotiating the
Instans, always threatening –
rugged coastline with its
conducted training more typically
a fi ghting withdrawal to perform deployment work came at RAF there was a ‘battle camp’ exercise Altitude) was designed to prepare challenging tidal conditions as
performed by the commandos
in full kit over several kilometres. Benson, where the 846 fliers at RAF Valley in Anglesey with the squadron for hot weather potential navigation officers
they carry into battle.
That allowed the crews to assess chatted with their RAF Chinook missions amid the North Wales operations in mountainous, dusty received instruction.
There was a week of infantry
how well their kit was fi tting and counterparts who had recently mountains by day and night terrain, whilst also converting The ship spent the first part
training at the Stanford exercise how much most of their personal returned from Afghanistan. The second outing was Exercise crews to operate the Sea King Mk of 2007 in the Gulf. Her autumn
grounds in Norfolk with the fi tness levels needed improving. Then it was into the simulator, Kush Dragon on Salisbury 4 Plus. programme began with a brief
emphasis on weapons usage on “The package proved highly first at Benson where the desert Plain, where the Sea Kings fl ew “The detachment was a real stay on the Dart, where trainee
a level well above the annual enjoyable and extremely valuable, has been recreated and next at alongside Chinooks, Apaches and eye-opener for all on 846,” said Lt officers from Britannia Royal
weapons test. but for a team of matelots, the Middle Wallop where the Fleet Lynx in support of ground troops Evans. Naval College joined her to
That meant live fi eld fi ring, week of aggressive soldiering was a Air Arm team practised gunnery – who have subsequently deployed “It was the fi rst time that the receive a taste of life aboard an
close-quarters battle and actions completely new experience,” said support with the Royal Artillery. to Afghanistan. modifi ed aircraft had been fl own operational warship.
to take should an aircraft make Lt Tom Evans. By mid-summer most of the The last signifi cant act before in an area with a similar climate Sutherland will spend the rest
an emergency landing in hostile “By the end there were a few squadron’s traditional training heading to the Middle East was a and topography to the theatre of the year on training exercises
territory. sore bodies.” was complete. fortnight in Cyprus. of operations. The results were before she enters refit for
To add to the ‘fun’, there was More conventional pre- To gear up for Afghanistan, Exercise HIDA (High Density hugely encouraging.” upgrades to her weaponry.
River deep, mountain high
BY THE time you read these
words, the good ship HMS Scott
will be ready for another marathon
stint at sea... after just returning
from a 308-day tour of duty.
The hi-tech survey vessel had
five weeks of intensive work...
while her sailors had five weeks
of intensive training, days
after bringing Scott back into
Devonport.
The ship clocked up 59,000
miles during her 2006-07
deployment, taking her odometer
over the half-million mark – a
record for a ship with ten years
of service under the White Ensign
(that’s almost 4,000 miles every
month).
The net was cast particularly
wide on this deployment: South
Africa, the Seychelles, Jordan,
Gibraltar, Bermuda, Halifax, St
Johns, and finally Reykjavik.
And in between the port visits,
there was the small matter of
charting the ocean bed to widen THIS underwater mountain summit is still 9,000ft short of
our understanding of what lies (above) and submarine river the surface) and is about the
beneath. (below) are just two of the size of the Isle of Wight.
Charts covering some 236,000 stunning seabed features The ‘river’ meandering through
square miles of ocean (that’s captured by Scott and her crew the sea bed is deceptively small;
roughly the size of Texas) have during this deployment. it’s actually a canyon four miles
been updated thanks to the multi- To give you an idea of scale, wide and 500ft deeper than the
beam echo sounder fitted to Scott, the ‘sea mountain’ or ‘submarine surrounding sea bed – and is
shedding light on a world unseen island’ rises 6,500ft above the three miles below the surface.
by mankind. ocean
“Returning to Devonport floor (its
brought with it no rest for a hard-
working ship’s company,” said XO
Lt Cdr Jim Buck.
“The ship underwent a very
focused maintenance period and
that, combined with an intensive
training package, will see Scott
emerge after just five weeks well-
prepared for a further 300-day
exploration of the deep-ocean
seabed.”
marina Ship of the month, page 12
● Lines to take... One of Scott’s
sailors casts a line silhouetted
Picture: LA(Phot) Luis Holden, FRPU Whale Island against a fi ery sky
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