2 NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2008
HMS Bulwark
HMS Astute HMS Dasher
HMS Pursuer
Vikings/845NAS/846 NAS/FSMASU
HMS Sabre/Scimitar
539 ASRM/EOD Team
HMS Somerset
845 NAS HMS Echo
RFA Wave Ruler
HMS Iron Duke
HMS Westminster
HMS Albion
HMS Kent
HMS Chatham
HMS Montrose
HMS Edinburgh
HMS Ramsey
HMS Blyth
HMS Atherstone
HMS Exeter
HMS Chiddingfold
857 NAS
RFA Cardigan Bay
HMS Shoreham
RFA Wave Knight
FASLANE
ROSYTH
HMS Endurance
HMS Tyne
HMS GANNET
HMS Bangor
800/801 NAS
45 Cdo
HMS Clyde
HMS Liverpool
YEOVIL
TON
Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas
DEVONPORT
PORTSMOUTH
CULDROSE
HMS Southampton
● Top bombing... Garvie Island receives a pounding from the Naval Strike Wing – as observed by
FFleet Focusleet Focus
HMS Exeter
Proud to
serve but
STABBINGS and knife crime might be dominating the
news agenda at present, but it’s another blight on our
dejected
society which has dominated the efforts of the Royal Navy
this past month: drugs traffi cking.
TWO out of three sailors believe
At opposite ends (ish) of the globe, British sailors and marines
morale in the Senior Service is
have seized narcotics.
low – or worse – according to an
HMS Iron Duke bagged £40m of cocaine (and headlines the
offi cial study of Forces morale
world over thanks to the presence of a certain royal personage
and attitudes.
aboard) in the Caribbean (see page 5).
Spirit is higher in the Royal
Meanwhile in the Gulf and Indian Ocean, a news blackout on
Marines, however, but four out
RN drug-busting operations has been lifted to reveal that HM
of ten commandos still believe
Ships Chatham, Montrose and Edinburgh, plus RFA Argus,
morale is low or very low.
have accounted for 70 per cent of the drugs seized by Allied
On the plus side, 19 in every
forces this year along the ‘hashish highway’ (see page 13).
20 Royal Marines are proud to
Heading home (belatedly) from the Indian Ocean is HMS
serve their country; two out of
Westminster whose deployment was extended by a month
three sailors say likewise.
thanks to the cyclone which struck Burma. Neither the frigate,
But 37 per cent of naval
nor destroyer Edinburgh which relieved her, were called upon to
officers, almost half of all ratings
offer assistance in the end (see opposite).
and one in three green berets say
Further up the Bay of Bengal, survey ship HMS Echo paid a
they regularly consider handing
rare visit to Bangladesh when she worked with the country’s
in their notice.
navy in the approaches to Chittagong, the principal port (see
And more than half of all
page 11).
sailors and two out of five Royal
Britain’s two principal assault ships, HMS Albion and Bulwark,
Marines say financial incentives –
have both been conducting manoeuvres in foreign waters. Albion
bonuses and ‘golden handcuffs’ –
has been in West Africa (see pages 22-23), Bulwark in the Baltic would not influence their decision
exercising with Russian marines (see page 6). to stay in or leave the Service.
Meanwhile in home waters, RFA Lyme Bay has been earning These figures – and countless
her spurs as an amphibious ship during exercises off the Devon more – are revealed in the latest
and Cornish coasts, working alongside 1 Assault Group RM (see Continuous Attitude Survey
pages 14-16). conducted by the MOD last
The Royal Marines of 45 Commando will soon be heading to summer and published in July.
Helmand once more with 3 Commando Brigade. They prepared Nearly 8,000 survey forms –
for Afghanistan by holding off a ‘Taleban’ onslaught at a mock- featuring almost 250 questions
up base in Norfolk (see page 8). – were given to sailors.
Also about to deploy to Afghanistan are the fliers of 845 NAS THREE decades after champagne trickled down over the two days of the event. Half of the 1,500 officers who
(some are already in the theatre); crews and Sea Kings headed her bow, HMS Exeter sailed past her birthplace to Away from festivities, the ship’s company took received them responded, almost
to Gap in southern France to practise high-altitude operations celebrate her 30th birthday. part in a solemn drumhead ceremony ashore, with half the senior rates filled in their
(see page 11). The veteran destroyer – Britain’s oldest surface ship the crew of HMS Astute – the new attack submarine forms, but fewer than one in four
HMS Endurance’s sailors are enjoying the unique sights of and last survivor of Falklands task force – headed up being built at BAE’s yard in Barrow – lining some of junior ratings gave their opinions.
South Africa as the ice ship undergoes a mini-overhaul before the Tyne for a weekend in Newcastle, the latest stop the town’s streets as Exeter’s sailors paraded past. Of more than 4,000
heading up the continent’s west coast for some rare survey work on her UK ‘summer tour’. ItIt would probably be too much to call Barrow Royal Marines who received
away from Antarctica (see page 30). Her birthplace, the Swan Hunter yard aatt ‘pi‘picture postcard’… unlike Exeter’s next port the surveys, only a quarter
On the opposite side of the Atlantic, HMS Liverpool and HMS Wallsend, is little more than a shell these ese oof call,f the colourful Tobermory (or Balamory responded.
Clyde visited South Georgia to conduct a disaster relief exercise days, sadly. It no longer builds ships after fter if if yyoou’re under fi ve), a brief halt as the destroyer Over half the commandos
with the handful of locals (see page 5). failing to fi nish RFA Lyme Bay and most of of mmoved through the isles and inlets of western believe they should be paid
HMS Hurworth has completed her attachment to a NATO mine the heavy machinery, including its iconic Scotland, past Eilean Donan castle (the better; one in three sailors is also
warfare group with HMS Roebuck and returned to Portsmouth cranes, are being shipped to a yard in archetypal Highlands fortress), past the unhappy with their levels of pay.
(see page 11). south-west India. Kyle of Lochalsh, beneath the Skye road Nine out of ten sailors believe
Also in Portsmouth, military and political leaders signed the Despite Swan’s demise, the Tyne has bridge then on to the north-western tip the RN lives up to its recent
deal which will see two new aircraft carriers join the Fleet next lost none of its appetite for the RN with of the Scottish mainland. watchword – The team works –
decade (see page 9). nearly 100 movers and shakers crossing There the sailors were joined by 148 and more than half are willing to
After nearly four years out of the water, strategic missile boat the gangway for a VIP reception. Battery Royal Artillery to offer their put themselves out for the good
HMS Victorious put to sea, bringing the curtain down on her They were followed by schoolchildren gunnery expertise during a naval gunfi re of the Service. Three quarters of
major refit in Devonport (see page 17). and cadets who were given a tour of f ssupport exercise on the Cape Wrath ranges. Royal Marines are also prepared
As Victorious left Devonport, so hunter-killer HMS Talent the destroyer, now in the fi nal year of her her OOne hundred high-explosive shells left to make sacrifices for the sake of
returned, fresh from a wide-ranging deployment which illustrious career (she pays off next year to the barrel of Exeter’s 4.5in main gun and came the Corps.
encompassed the Arctic Circle and the Bahamas (see page 4). coincide with HMS Daring joining the Fleet). crashing down ashore. But two in every five sailors
And although she’s not ready for sea just yet, new Fleet Exeter reached the Tyne ‘the long way round’ It wasn’t only Exeter giving the Sutherland would not recommend joining the
submarine HMS Astute has been practising the tricky manoeuvre sailing not via the Strait of Dover but via Cape Wrath landscape a pounding. Harriers of 800 NAS Forces to friends or family; over
of leaving Barrow – courtesy of a computer simulator in Holland and the northern coast of Scotland. unleashed their bombs against nearby Garvie Island half of all green berets, however,
(see page 4). Her ‘summer tour’ has been a mix of public visits in preparation for their re-deployment to Afghanistan said they would recommend
HMS Exeter was also in Barrow, taking part in the town’s and training exercises, beginning with Barrow’s later this year. Just for good measure they ‘swung by’ Service life.
maritime festival before heading around the top of Scotland, via Festival of the Sea. Exeter and conducted simulated attacks against the Half of the Senior Service –
a gunnery/bombing exercise at Cape Wrath (see right). Exeter was to have been joined by mine counter- destroyer. FAA, Submarine Service and
And finally... Last month we commented that the weather in measures vessel HMS Walney, but she was needed by There was a respite from war in the natural harbour Surface Fleet and the Royal
Blighty wasn’t that great. Hmmm. Anyone attending Yeovilton FOST for training. of Scapa Flow, where the ship anchored for a night Marines – say their work does
Air Day (see page 10) will tell you it still isn’t that great. Fingers Which meant that Exeter got all the attention RN- to hold a barbecue for her ship’s company, before leave them with a sense of
crossed for next month then... wise; an estimated 14,000 people fi led aboard her making fi rst for Leith, then fi nally on to Newcastle. achievement.
0002_NN_Aug.indd 102_NN_Aug.indd 1 114/7/08 11:36:004/7/08 11:36:00
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