6 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2008
All power to Rock rescue
the carriers for SPAG
THE latest piece in the gigantic WEATHER on The Rock hasn’t
future carrier jigsaw has been all bad this autumn (see
slotted into place with a £235m previous page) – it was ideal for the
deal clinched to power the RN’s specialist submarine rescue
leviathans. team.
HM Ships Queen Elizabeth
SPAG (Submarine Parachute
and Prince of Wales,
Assistance Group) headed to
replacements for Britain’s
Gibraltar to make use of its
existing Invincible-class
(normally) warm and calm waters
carriers, will be the largest
and practise the art of caring for
warships in the world propelled
casualties from a stricken boat.
through the seven seas by
As the name implies, the SPAG
electric engines.
team parachutes over the site of
To drive the two
a ‘subsmash’ to offer immediate
65,000-tonnes vessels at
assistance to those trapped below.
maximum speeds in excess of
The parachutists did the ‘P’ bit
25kts demands state-of-the-art
last year in Australia at a major
machinery and engineering.
exercise.
To that end, four international
The emphasis off Gib was the
fi rms – Rolls-Royce, Thales,
‘A’ bit: 40 specialists, including
L3 and Converteam – will work
three doctors, four medics and
hand-in-hand to provide the
experts from the Submarine
engines, rudders, stabilisers,
Escape Training Tank in Gosport,
propellers and control systems,
set up a floating ‘casualty centre’.
with four fi fths of the work
Using a ‘floating village’ of
carried out in the UK.
25-man life rafts, they conducted
Two gas turbines will power
triage – deciding which casualties
two electric motors in each
needed treatment first – and then
vessel, driving two propellers
provided medical aid.
which will each be more than
‘Casualties’ came courtesy
one and a half times the height
of local forces, led by the most
of a double-decker bus – and
senior officer in Gibraltar, Cdre
weigh more than twice as
Matt Parr (a former submarine
much.
CO).
Beyond driving the ships, the
Whilst the medics were
power plants in both vessels
grappling with their makeshift
will meet all the needs of the
first-aid ‘centre’, the SPAG bosses
ship’s companies, generating
were setting up a command and
enough electricity to power
control centre afloat, liaising with
a town the size of Swindon
the UK.● A piper plays a lament for the Super B as Britain’s oldest submarine – fl ying a 32-yard decommissioning pennant – pays off in Devonport
(pop.155,000).
Picture: LA(Phot) Dave Sterratt, FRPU West “As long as we are sending
Automation, cameras and
people to sea in submarines and
other monitoring systems mean
A lament for Superb
fitting boats with escape hatches,
that despite the ships being
then we need a system to retrieve
three times the size, the marine
people from the water and take
engineering departments of
them to a safe environment,”
both carriers will be around
explained Cdr Charlie Neve,
120 sailors strong – roughly the
SPAG’s head.
equivalent of today’s vessels.
“Gibraltar is ideal for this
Technological improvements
kind of training – the weather
since the existing fl eet of fl at-
is generally good, the water
tops was laid down in the 1970s
THE unusual surroundings
the hundreds of deeps who who decommissioning pennant deco Superb found a new role –
temperature is spot on, we get
also means that on roughly the
of Devonport Naval Base
have sailed in her. more than 30 ymor ards long including launching Tomahawk
away from our home base for
same amount of fuel, Queen saw the last act in the
It had been, CO Lt Cdr Cdr (one y(one ard for each year of cruise missiles against targets
team building and there’s a
John Aitken told his men,n, service) while the Band in Afghanistan during the 2001
Elizabeth and Prince of Wales
military HQ close at hand.”
32-year career of HMS “a privilege to servee of HM Roo yal Marines campaign to oust the Taleban.
The team is now back in
should be able to sail around
Superb.
with you. It has been provided suitable “This is an emotional
Blighty, where it remains at six
twice as far.
The veteran hunter-killer was
an honour to have accompaniment. moment for us,” said Lt Duncan
hours notice to move if there’s a
“The new carriers represent
paid off to the strains of a lament
you as shipmates. The boat’s sponsor, McClement, Superb’s deputy
submarine accident.
a series of fi rsts for the Fleet
– this propulsion technology
of a lone piper – a homage to the
“It is with some Lady Williams who marine engineering offi cer.
has not been seen in the Royal
submarine’s Scottish roots.
sadness that we launched Superb in “As we looked after HMS
Navy on this scale,” said Rear
Superb – or Super B to her men
bring an end to the Barrow on an autumn Superb when she was alongside
– was based in Faslane, but after
career of a submarine day in 1974, inspected in the docks, so she looked after G, it’s cold
Admiral Bob Love, Director
hitting an underwater pinnace
that has given longer a ceremonial guard with a us when we went to sea in her,
General Ships.
in the Red Sea she was forced to
service than any other er former CO Cdre Simon sailing nearly half a million miles,
“It is state-of-the-art and it
return to the UK – and headed for
in the Royal Navy and that Williams. serving the nation for more than
will mean that we will have to
for a swim
Devonport.
occupies a fond place in the The world has changed 30 years.”
learn to do things differently –
The grounding incident
hearts of all who have served in substantially since that day 34 years Just one of the Swiftsure class
THERE are stretches of ocean
these are extremely complex
provoked headlines and slightly
her. ago: Superb was built to deal with of boats remains in service now,
where you might expect the pipe
systems.”
shortened Superb’s career. But
“HMS Superb has been a the threat of Soviet submarines in HMS Sceptre, which is due to pay
‘Hands to Bathe’.
The sisters will be the largest
crew past and present chose to
treasure and a pleasure to serve the North Atlantic. off in two years… by which time
Somewhere along the Equator,
vessels built for the Royal Navy.
celebrate her achievements – and
in.” Once the Soviet threat her successor HMS Astute will be
the Caribbean Sea perhaps,
The power plants for Queen
the unique bond forged between
The boat trailed a disappeared in the early 90s, active.
maybe around Hawaii.
Elizabeth will be delivered
The North Sea in autumn is,
between 2009 and 2011. The
to be honest, not the immediate
ship herself enters service in
2014.
Cornwall, the
...and farewell to the Heron
choice.
But that didn’t deter the men
of the Fighting G – especially
when British honour was at stake.
And so they stripped off and
jumped into the less-than-warm
’burger kings
IT”S farewell to one branch of fi xed-wing base, was to provide vital support to its fellow In recent years, just a handful of RN waters of the North Sea in the
aviation in the RN with the passing of Yeovilton unit, 815 NAS, when one of its Lynx personnel have been attached to the unit, with Danish port of Aalborg for a
Heron Flight – the operational support and came down in northern Denmark. military support fi rm Serco providing the air mini Olympiad, one of the fun
HMS Cornwall headed up the communications unit. The fl ight’s origins date back to 781 and 782 and ground crew, and serving RN pilots as the precursor events to Danex08
Elbe for a week representing the Three Jetstream T3 propeller-driven aircraft NAS, based at Lee and Donibristle respectively fl ight and deputy fl ight commanders. – the annual international war
best of British industry. have been the most recent incarnation of the during WW2, and an assortment of Expeditors, Fully-laden with 16 passengers, the games organised by those bacon
The Type 22 frigate spent a Yeovilton-based fl ight, which traces its history Oxfords, Harrows and Travellers. Jetstreams can fl y about 400 nautical miles, or and pastry-loving types in Jutland.
week in Hamburg showcasing the back more than six decades. Heron Flight itself was born in 1981 when with ten passengers they can extend their range The two-week-long exercise is
RN, British defence firms and The Jetstreams transported thousands of 781 NAS and RNAS Yeovilton’s Station Flight to 1,200 miles. The aircraft have now gone intended to test Allied navies in
the maritime sector as a whole at sailors, marines, VIPs and other passengers were disbanded. It proved essential 12 months into storage at RAF Cranwell where they await the art of anti-air, anti-submarine
the (deep breath) International around the UK and Europe in support of later in giving logistical support to the forces disposal. and – increasingly – anti-terrorist
Shipbuilding, Machinery and y and eexxercercises and deploises and deployments, as well as proell as providing viding libliberaeratting the Fing the Faalklandslklands. WWhitehall reckons it can sahitehall reckons it can save more te more than han defence.defence
Marine Technology Interernnaattional ional ccrrucial logistical support to t to front-line ops front-line ops When its Sea Devons and Sea Herons were ££500,000 each y500,000 each year by axing the ear by axing the flfl ight, with HHMS Gloucester,MS which has
Trade Fair. aaround the continent.round the continent. paid off in 1987, the fl ight disappeared from personnesonnel using civilian l using civilian aairlines irlines iinstead nstead recently emerged from refirecently t and
Although Cornwall hererselself wf was To that end, the fl iight’ght’s last ys last year proear proved to ed to tthe scene… until it re-emerged in 1990 with he scene… until it re-emerged in 1990 with toto mo moveve around. around. passed her Operapasse tional Sea
a static display, her sailorors were bebe its b its buusiest.siest. ThThe aircraft we aircraft weere in the skies re in the skies tthe Jhe Jetstreams, actua actually bought to prolly bought to provvide ide TTrrainingain , arrived in the Danish
not: they toured the spraawling wling for 1,200 hours, safel safely cary carryying in excess of ing in excess of obobserserver traer training.ining. T They prohey proveed unsuitable d unsuitable porport to join t Allied vessels from
exhibition site, attending lectures g lectures 33,000 passenger,000 passengers to destinations as far away y iin than that role… but veryy successful as successful as Poland,oland the Netherlands and
and giving various presentaentattions ions aas Cyprs Cyprus, Bardu Bardufoss in norfoss in northern Norway and y and ccommunicaommunications aircrations aircraft.ft. Germamanny, plus fellow Pompey
on the role of the RN and the nd the NNororth Ath Afrfrica. nattivivee HMS Richmond. H
importance of the sea to the o the Its Its fifi nal nal task,task, before before After the Olympiad (roAft wing
nation. ppaaying oying off aff att its home its home and tug-of-wand ar were the other
They had a rather large ge evevents besides the dip in e
audience: the trade fair aattractedttracted the harbour),the the force put
some 500 exhibitors from across m across to sea which meant defence to s
the globe and upwards of 50,000 of 50,000 wwatatches and action stac tions
visitors. for the ships’for th companies, air
The trip to Hamburg opened opened attack fttack from Har wk jets and search
a five-week ‘mini deployment’yment’ for of the ‘s‘suspicious’ German tanker
the frigate. AAmmermmerssee for Gloucester’s
From the Elbe, she headed eaded bboarding paroardin ty.
for north-west Scotland TThe Gerhe G mans obviously didn’t
as one of more than 30 mind the Fighting G’mind th s sailors
warships taking part in boarding their shipboardin , searching
the Joint Warrior (the from tip to toe for contraband from tip
latest incarnation of Joint nt and interand inte rogating them… because
Maritime Course/Neptune une they then pumped lots of lothey the vely
Warrior) war games with h AAllied llied oil into Gloucester’oil into s tanks during
naval, ground and air forcesorces. Picture: PO(Phot) Brad Bradburye: PO(Phot) Brad Bradbury a replenishment aa replen t sea.
006_NN.indd 1 17/10/08 14:16:01
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