16 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2007
Faslane
Fair to be
It’s all change on
revamped
THE principal event north of the
border putting the RN into the
public eye is being postponed for
12 months while bosses revamp it.
Faslane Fair at Helensburgh is
Northumberland
the showpiece event for the men
and women of nearby HM Naval
IT WAS entirely fitting that While berthed alongside HMS Engineering Technicians,
Base Clyde, drawing thousands of
the Royal Navy’s revamped
Belfast in London, Northumberland specialising as Weapon, Marine or
people to the seafront.
The show has typically
personnel structure should be
acted as a platform for an official Air Engineers.
coincided with a Neptune Warrior
formally unveiled on board HMS
launch at which the new system was Within the Warfare branch there
explained to 60 movers and shakers,
exercise (the former JMC) run
Northumberland.
are now Communications and
including 20 specialist career and
at the base – which normally
Because the frigate had been the
Information Systems specialists,
personnel media representatives.
involves a substantial gathering of
guinea pig for the changes which are
and those controlling the ship’s
After introductions from the
British and foreign warships.
designed to bring the Navy’s system
weapons, sensors and defensive
frigate’s Commanding Officer, Cdr
But with the dates of the
up to date and to align it with Civvy
systems from the ops room are now
Tom Guy, and Second Sea Lord Vice
exercise now shifted from June
Street.
designated Warfare specialists.
Admiral Adrian Johns, the visitors
to April or September, naval
Over the past year the Navy
Also within the Warfare branch is
were given tours of the ship to see
base bosses decided it was worth
has redesigned the majority of
the Seaman specialist, whose main
the types of skills encompassed by
looking again not just at the
specialisations within which sailors
tasks include steering, resupplying,
the new regime.
timing of the fair, but also at the
develop skills and forge a career.
anchoring and berthing the ship.
event as a whole.
The new roles reflect the tasks and
The ops room staged an air
They will also man the bridge at sea,
Last summer’s fair drew 20,000 technology aboard modern warships,
defence exercise, fi ghting off
drive and crew the ship’s boats, and
visitors and raised upwards of and being closer to civilian equivalents
an Exocet missile attack, while
undertake ship protection duties.
£30,000 for a ‘sunshine’ bus for means they will help with recruiting
the Ship Control Centre dealt
Former Stores Accountants are
local youngsters with disabilities. and should allow for continuity when
with fi re and fl ood (but fortu-
now Supply Chain Logisticians,
Naval base commander Cdre a sailor leaves the Service.
nately not pestilence).
who remain responsible for the
Carolyn Stait said she understood The new system will not affect Navy personnel specialists,
provision of commodities, warehouse
the disappointment at postponing traditional shipboard requirements formerly writers, are now Personnel
management and the like.
this year’s fair, but added that it such as fire fighting, security and Logisticians, and will be at the
Last – but definitely not least,
was time to bring the event “bang major seamanship tasks. forefront of the MOD’s new Joint
as the superb lunch provided by
up to date”. As part of the programme terms Personnel Administration system.
Northumberland proved – are the
She said: “The fair has run with and conditions of service have also The specialisation will also adopt
former chefs and stewards who
the same format for many years, been redesigned to be more flexible, a legal role, administering paperwork
now take on the collective title of
but this year scheduling diffi culties allowing sailors to serve to a variety generated by Service trials at unit
Catering Services, bringing the two
have prompted us to sit down and of different ages and for the Navy to level under the Armed Forces Act.
sides (food preparation and service)
focus on how we might like to employ suitably-qualified people on A radical overhaul on the
closer together.
reshape the fair for the future. shorter-term contracts than has been engineering side has resulted in Frigate escorts replica slave
● HMS Northumberland heads up the Thames to London,
marina
“Faslane Fair has a great possible until now. artificers and mechanics becoming ship, page 13
followed by the replica of the slave ship Zong
history and always raises huge
amounts of money for its chosen
charities, and lets the public see
fi rst-hand the strength of the RN.”
BBlack Rover ploughs on –lack
MWC moves
to Collingwood
as does Manchester
TRAINING in the Royal Navy is
ON THE move are the experts
rigorous enough – but sometimes
from the Maritime Warfare
the Fates seems to be against you.
Centre, who are departing their
That thought must have
hilltop home in Portsmouth and
occurred to the command team
the surroundings of Southwick
of destroyer HMS Manchester as
Park for HMS Collingwood.
they went through replenishment
In a nutshell, the brains trust
at sea (RAS) procedures with
at the centre analyses operations
dedicated Flag Officer Sea
past and present, taking feedback
Training (FOST) tanker RFA
from ships and units across the
Black Rover in decidedly lumpy
globe, and devises the tactics
Plymouth exercise areas.
which drive RN and RM
Black Rover has been FOST
commitments worldwide.
tanker since 2005, and in addition
The centre is presently split
to RAS training the tanker is
between Portsdown Hill and the
also used to simulate merchant
former HMS Dryad site.
vessels to allow boarding training,
Maritime Warfare School
maritime security and towing
bosses at Collingwood were keen
operations.
to see the MWC team on one
During warfare serials the
site close to the school, hence the
versatile ship also acts as the prized
move to Fareham.
asset, to be protected against air,
The MWC has been split for
surface and sub-surface threats.
nearly a dozen years, so moving
As for Manchester, having
everything on to a single site has
finished her refit in Devonport,
its challenges.
trials and exercises, she returned
“It’s essential that we
‘home’ after an absence of a year
meticulously move all our files so
to renew long-standing ties.
that no nuggets of information
The ship berthed in Liverpool
from the front-line are lost,” said
(the destroyer could sail down
● RFA Black Rover ploughs through the Channel during Flag Offi cer
Wtr Luton Wright.
the Manchester Ship Canal into
Sea Training exercises off Plymouth
Don’t worry, Luton, there are
her namesake city, but it wouldn’t
Mersey Naval and Maritime Scotland, and into the Baltic.
only files and documents covering
● HMS Manchester during a stern RAS with RFA Black Rover in do her mast much good...) and
Society, and Sea Cadets from Later this year the Type 42 is
about the last six decades of RN
heavy weather out in the Plymouth exercise areas promptly opened her gangway to
Altrincham, Trafalgar Stretford bound for the Gulf, where she
operations to contend with...
Pictures: Chief Officer Chris Locke, XO RFA Black Rover visitors, including patients from
and Urmston units. will work in company with one of
the Moss Lea and Whiteledge
Training and exercises resumed the largest warships in the world,
day centres in Ormskirk and
for the Busy Bee after her spell in American carrier USS Harry S
VANGUARD CLASS
Skelmersdale respectively, the
the North-west as she sailed around Truman.
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