HMS Severn, a River class offshore patrol vessel, has been given a new paint job.

The vessel is looking quite smart…

 

HMS Severn returned to operational status last year after the River class Offshore Patrol Vessel left the fleet in October 2017 after 14 years of service.

The vessel was originally decommissioned in October 2017 as previously the plan was to replace the Batch 1 River class Offshore Patrol Vessels with the newer Batch 2 vessels. However, it was announced in 2018 that all the Batch 1 River class vessels would be retained.

HMS Severn will be re-commissioned on the 28th of August.

Additional to the Batch 1 HMS Severn getting a new paint job, the five newer Batch 2 River class ships are all getting a new paint job. The Royal Navy say they plan to paint all five second-generation River-class ships with the dazzle scheme in due course to give them a unique identity in the Fleet.

You can read more by clicking here.

Patrol ships to be painted in Dazzle camouflage

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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94 COMMENTS

  1. My God….first the RB2’s and now the batch 1’s have caught it! Though a different strain  😀 
    I thought the snazzy livery was for the OPS only?
    When was sea green last on a RN vessel?

        • You rang?

          B1 vessels are part of the OPS (if you mean the Overseas Patrol Squadron).

          This particular paint job is the Western Approaches pattern, of WW2 vintage. The pattern had a few variations throughout the war and was usually applied to destroyers/corvettes and their Commonwealth equivalents. HMS Bulldog is one example that springs to mind (the ship that captured an Enigma machine, and a name that will be given to a T31).

          As for the very last ship to use it or when it was last applied, that would be a tough one to answer! The paint was allocated to dockyards/ships, with the responsibility to mix and apply it falling to the workers and crews. As a result, many unique variations were derived across hundreds of warships during the war, with the ships often being repainted in new tones during the course of the war. Something in my head also says that captains could choose what they wanted their ship to be painted in, or at least, how it would look – explaining some of the variations. Some even mixed paints to create new colours!

          I believe this particular variation stems from what was in use between 1940-42, although ships were repainted and adopted different colours after, of course.

          Severn looks great! She’ll look even better alongside HMS Belfast when she officially recommissions. She’s well worth a follow on Twitter – she has one of the best TweetOs in the fleet!

          • You see. More reliable than any OFF SHORE call centre!!

            Good point re the OPS, indeed that is what I meant.

            Being rushed out the door by the wife but will absorb this later.

          • 😳 enigma ? Capture? HMS Bulldog? …. you mean the film U-571 during which Jon Bon Jovi and his wee yank pals captured it IS’NT true 😲 ………….

            those crazy yanks !

            🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

          • Don’t you know? The USA won the war and everything else, alone, and invented everything, and did everything.

            True story, my father used to get asked by his US tourists ( he was a TWA Tour Director ) as to why Windsor Castle was built on the Heathrow flight path….!  😂 

          • 😂 yes I have heard that verbal account of history 😂

            crazy mofo’s they are. I remember sitting in the airport in Vegas awaiting transfer and got talking to couple of friendly chaps when they realised I was from the cradle of civilisation (that’s the old country known as the people’s Republic of Scotland sadly now) one of them asked me if I knew John from Aberdeen ? 😂😂😂😂😂 aye top bloke is John !! theirs only quarter of a million people in the city but i know him 🙈🙈🙈…….. daft Kent’s they are 😂

            true story dat 👍🏻

            🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

          • The best one I heard was someone telling a bunch of civvies during Navy Days that the Invincible class could go as fast as Concorde as they had the same engines.  😂 

          • That is hilarious.

            There is a tiny grain of truth in the Olympus family core being in both the GT’s and jet engines.

            A Mach 2 aircraft carrier. Hey, maybe the Russian should build a model?

          • Hi Daniele….and then there was the American cousin who bought London Bridge thinking he was getting Tower Bridge. Now looking great in Arizona.

          • My brother who used to work for British Airways, as a check in agent at Heathrow, was told by an American tourist, why did the Queen build Windsor Castle so close to the airport. 😀 

          • You have me stumped there, mate.

            Press releases/interviews with the crews/talk on social media have all corroborated the fact that there’s a desire to give the rivers their own unique look. There’s a method there if you unpick it a little.

            The rivers are unquestionably the real workhorses of the fleet, being the vessels with the highest activity rate. They spend much of their time at sea and are as much a representative of the RN/UK as the carriers, escorts, or future national flagship. In the case of the B2 Rivers that are based overseas, investing in making them ‘look good’ only serves to impress regional allies and operational partners. Of course, operations are far more important than cosmetics, but the RN has always been good at putting on a spread, so to speak. People will always remember that cool-looking ship that they were invited aboard (first impressions and all), while it might just sow a seed in the minds of younger generations to pursue a career at sea. Think of it as a small piece of ‘Global Britain at work.

            Something else that the RN has always been good at is honouring what went before. Part of me thinks that adopting the scheme is an affectionate and respectful nod to the men and ships that are now but a memory. The Royal Canadian Navy has done similar on their ships, while the Royal Air Force has also painted its own planes to honour past paint schemes. Why can’t the Royal Navy follow suit?

            From an operational point of view, it might have some benefits. Grey has been the ‘go to’ colour for a while, as it in itself offers lower visability to the good old MK1 eyeball. It is why the ‘new’ MK4 Merlins have adopted the scheme, rather than the green of the previous Merlin/Sea King airframes. However, the B2s (especially those deployed to the Indo-Pacific) will be expected to work in littoral environments. The paint schemes will offer camouflage in those environments, particularly during lower light levels. Tamar has already shown how that can work during operations around Devon and Cornwall. I can imagine such a scheme would be perfect for Forth operating in the South Atlantic.

            Part of me also thinks that it’s part of a test for bigger things. Maybe it’s being used as a test for T31/T32/Littoral Ships/future Bay replacements? We know that things are changing, and this might represent the RN planning for the future.

          • I believe the Western Approaches scheme was created by Sir Peter Scott the famous artist and naturalist. He managed to get his ship, the WW1 vintage flotilla leader HMS Broke, to adopt the first experimental WA camo in 1940.

  2. Looks great, wish we could get the old Edwardian Buff/Black/White paint scheme back. Mentioned it to the TweetO of HMS Severn and they agreed it would look great.

  3. I’m a bit confused, I thought the paint schemes were generally designed to blend in but the green stands out quite a bit.

      • This paint scheme was invented 100+ years ago for when binoculars was the most advanced sensor to located ships. Tradition is just nostalgia for outdated thinking. If we are going to station none combative ships to project Global Britain why not make them colourful and make people step back and say wow. Like we all did with the anniversary typhoon. Give the con towers a splash of the Union Jack at least. The T45 Dragon looks awesome. And did the Japanese aircraft carriers in WW2 have the rising Sun on there’s.

        And no I’m not thinking operation peticote either. The colour schemes are good and way better then our capital ships.

  4. I do but understand why aircraft and ships have to be camo painted these days. When every ship / aircrafts now will not be engaged in visual sight. As modern sensors detect combatants beyond visual range. Why not instead paint them in colour schemes like the anniversary aircraft the typhoon/Chinook/voyager to give maximum global Britain presance where ever they go. Seeing a naval warship pull into port the same dull colours as every other naval ship won’t get heads wagging. The concept of the air force and royal navy is now to project Global Britain around the globe. Camouflage has now place now so let’s have modern colour scheme to advertise this. Missile aren’t fooled by camo colour schemes so why have them.
    Name a weapon system now that is aimed with a visual fix? I have not mention the army as engagements are still in visual range.
    Ships and airplanes are mostly radar and infa red detection. Id love to see ships in full colour. Or is there a global rule ships have to be battleship grey like days of old.

    • Probably you’re average pirate, people smuggler or drug smuggler doesn’t have radar or IR detect with any decent range or resolution to ID the vessel. Remember these are OPVs

      • Yeah but commercial ships radar are abundant and cheap and most smugglers have them. Planes for instance fly at a altitude that you can’t see what colour it’s is. Why would a batch 1 river boat be hiding? it has radar doesn’t it and close support weapons. And as for HMS QE why on earth does she need it. You could see the thing on the horizon so painting it dull colours has no purpose they should be made to stand out as the anniversary craft have been. It’s just old fashioned thinking. They should not be affraid to go in battle hiding behind blue/grey/ green but be proud of why they are there. Colour schemes that have no purpose on today’s battlefield.

        But after taking a breath…..

        I suppose it comes down to what ever colour is left on the shelf in the garage. As paints schemes are costly.

    • I’m not sure that changing battleship grey for sky blue pink will go down well with the Navy. The counter argument is that grey does convey a certain level of menace. To illustrate, I flew into Buenos Aires during the G20 summit in December 2018. The airport was full of gaudily decked out Presidential aircraft, all the colours of the rainbow looking like they had been painted in a whores boudoir. In the middle sat the UK’s Voyager, a tanker in grey. And it looked decidedly sinister against the backdrop of all that colour, in a “Don’t mess with me “ fashion. The only pity is that it had Madam May on board, and we now have the same aircraft in gaudy colours just so that Bojo can keep up with the world’s dictators.

    • Well… a B1 River is armed with GPMG’s, and 20mm gun, while a B2 River is equipped with a 30mm gun and several 7.62mini guns. Neither will be engaging anything beyond visible range.

      Further, both classes work in Fisheries protection, interdicting smuggling and people trafficking, and presence operations, in both cases being able to make it a ? as too what they are, or what direction they are heading, is rather useful.

      As for aircraft… Personally I wouldn’t want bright coloured aircraft sitting in my FOB, great aiming markers.

      • To me this is the compete reverse of what you want for policing roles. There is a reason police cars have bright colours and flashing lights, it’s to make the police seen, which deters criminals. I would think the same would apply at sea, a brightly colourer highly viable OPV would deter criminals.

        • I think the issue is that on the high seas policing is rather different than on land. Where presence of a police cruiser will probably stop a drug deal going down, by the time a boat smuggling drugs or people seas an OPV it’s long past the point of having decided to break the law.
          Just my guess though.

        • The PC type craft I work on have Blue Flashers on the Mast for doing boarding’s and intercepts at night . The RIBs also have them

      • If by Reflective you actually mean absorbent is already in use and has been for decades on warships.
        Its all the other stuff that the paint does besides stopping corrosion that gets missed.
        Most paint schemes alter the IR reflectivity of a vessel making it somewhat less visible in certain wavelengths IR spectrum. It also has a number of CBRN properties to ensure that it doesn’t absorb Chemical Weapon residue or Radioactive Particles. That’s important to ensure that the Pre Wet works as advertised and gets rid of nastie when you use it.

    • These ships will represent UK abroad and with civvie shipping so a smart distinctive look is a good idea. The chosen camos both have great historical antecedents – Dazzle from WW1 and Western Approaches (created by the artist and natrualist Peter Scott of Slimbridge fame) from WW2. Also camo is proven as useful for littoral operations (the Swedish and Finnish navies use it extensively), and OPVs are littoral by nature.

  6. I’m getting flashbacks of Robin Williams RIP in film Good morning Vietnam. Why wear green in the jungle ? If your going to fight. Clash.  :wpds_lol: 

  10. That blue triangle next to the green on the bow. What the hell is the RN thinking about. Has no one told them blue and green should never be seen. It’s a fashion travesty.

  11. I like the camo on the Rivers but thereafter the RN must retain Navy greys. Regarding some of the suggestions to paint them as adverts for the UK-would you in all honesty respect a naval vessel painted yellow, red or pink? The grey is businesslike and adds a degree of menace to the appearance so there is no way this will be changed. Logos and badges such as on HMS Dragon and some of the Rivers are OK but that should be the end of it!
    Call me a traditionalist..

    • Agreed. I think the whole idea of multi coloured assets ridiculous.

      Might as well put ads by Coca Cola and McDonald’s in them for revenue.

      They’re killing machines if necessary, not mobile attractions trying to look nice.

      • 100% Daniele. I look at old photos of British battleships in line taken from the front of the ship at the head of the line-positively scary. Also that great pic of HMS Queen Elizabeth taken as she left Gibraltar for the first time from a long lense (I presume) as she charges toward the photographer. Wouldn’t look the same in McDonalds colours 😂
        13 degrees and raining here in Durban. Cold and miserable. Hope you getting some Summer.
        Cheers my friend.

      • Actually not a bad idea. The OPV have no war fighting capability, so if they could raise some revenue to pay the sailors better or improving housing etc by adding adverts, why not.

        • Put them on barracks, RAF station perimeters or MoD buildings that never move if it’s desired. Not assets.

          It’s not for me, mind.

          • Yeah me neither. You can guarantee the extra income would just be deducted from the budget and so net result would be no extra cash. If it could be used to improve the lives of our service men then I would be all for it

      • It looks like we lost our convo history about all this, Daniele.  😐 

        Don’t knock Mountbatten pink though, Geoff! It could be a fine addition to have… somewhere. Grey is business-like and practical; it acts as camo in itself and it’s easier to maintain. I’d love to see a 45 or 23 done out in true dazzle, but it would be a nightmare to maintain. A little bit of me would like to see Echo/Enterprise painted in the old survey colours and the return of figureheads, but call me a traditionalist!

        Now, home fleet dark grey could be interesting…

          • What’s with all these messages disappearing? seems some pretty innocent comments disappear.

          • Hi mate.

            I’d read a suggestion here that if a comment flagged is removed the whole thread goes with it.

            Maybe the banter taking the **** out of the Americans is what did it re enigma. Shame if so as totally in jest.

            Whatever. It’s George’s site so not going to make a fuss.

          • It’s understandable if so, but it’s a shame that the flagging also takes out the legitimate questions, answers, and reflections.

            I have always found this site to be a bastion for logical questions and replies. It serves as a base for civilians, serving/ex-military and inquisitive souls. You can always learn something from the comments section.

            The same can’t be said for social media, where the comment sections of Navy Lookout/UKDJ/Ship’s Profiles (and others) often descend into petty squabbling, people out for the last word, people out to score points and unwarranted sarcasm when people express a genuine desire to restore capabilities while lamenting cuts. I think social media often warps how people interact, but there’s no need for it.

            I honestly don’t find that here. Educational and informed debates, with a small helping of banter thrown in. Nothing’s ever meant by it – at least from me anyway!

          • It’s only temporary. Basically the flagging seems to put comments into a “sin bin” and it’s then just a matter of the mods getting around to going through the sin bin and saying “yes this comment is fine” and then it re-appears (I usually get a email notification that my comment has been okayed to go along with it.)

            It’s not a perfect system, and I’m mildly convinced that there is a unseen faction of serial flaggers now, but honestly it’s probably the best way of doing it.

          • Thanks, mate. I thought as much.

            I’ll join you in that conviction. I mean, we saw the love people had for the ‘downvote’ option when that was a thing.

          • Ahhh, I’ve had that several times and my comments were in no way inflammatory.

            In fact there is one appearing on this thread now, with orange wording “waiting for approval ” showing on my mobile.

            If that’s been flagged that’s ridiculous and deffo some idiot mucking about.

            Waves at sad little man🖐

          • Maybe the solution is for the regular contributors who don’t violate policy to be exempted unless/until they violate policy.

            It is usually the regulars who start a thread and then the whole thread disappears.

            In one case I asked an entirely appropriate, to the article, question and it and the sensible relevant responses disappeared for a few days!!

            Someone else then asked the same question and it stayed there….

          • Then what’s to prevent a contributor making the prerequisite number of comments before going off the rails?

          • They are flagged but not removed from view.

            The point I’m trying to make,badly, is that removing the initial post disrupts the flow of the conversation.

            When the posts are restored by Lisa the article is a few days old and has dropped from the top. No criticism of Lisa: as I’m sure she has to earn a crust from a day job too.

          • The problem is that anyone can flag a comment, and the number of flags needed is quite low (one experiment I did on my own comments seems to suggest 2 is the magic number to be sin binned).
            So a comment doesn’t actually need to be offensive to be sin binned, and if it actually is inoffensive I trust George and Co to restore it in the fullness of time.

          • It should be possible to screen flags by IP addresses. So those flags from persistent flag fees where no rules are broken are checked but no auto held in a moderation queue?

        • Hello Lusty. Mountbatten Pink..the least said the better!! Old survey colours were white Lusty? Return of figureheads-now you are talking but I would also add the Cat O Nine tails and keel hauling. Also revive Rum and Players Navy Cut  😄  When I was a pupil at Ealing Grammar School for Boys in 1960 one of our teachers had a miniature Cat O Nine, without a handle but the grip was a big knot, and he used it liberally on our backsides!! True story-Scouts Honour

          • Haha! Rum rations, now there was a thing. I’d fully support someone spending some money to put the rum ration equipment on the carriers in their bar or something. That would also be an affectionate not to the past. Imagine being keelhauled on QE or POW? Interesting story, though!

            Yes, white with buff on the smokestack.

      • Although, if you think about how televised modern conflict is, it would be great advertising for coke and a potential income stream for HMG. Completely morally questionable, but what is war other than the last resort and the defeat of moral argument.

  12. I’m in two minds about the paint scheme.
    If, as I believe the RN press release initially said, they are not painted for dazzle camouflage purposes but mainly to give the Rivers an unique identity I am strongly against them on a cost basis. I would like to know the cost comparison for this scheme and the usual North Atlantic grey.
    On the other hand, I’ve spent quite some time looking at Norwegian Skjold class corvettes alongside the wall at Devonport from a range of distances and angles and their camouflage is magnificent, even in an industrial environment.
    If it really is just for an identity, when money has to be managed properly, the paint scheme (and Dragon’s bow motif) cannot be justified to taxpayers.

      • That’s what concerns me. If RN top brass are going the way of the army in ego projects they should be called out for it.
        Defence is trying to stretch its budget whilst money is tight.
        I believe some of the Dragon bow motif was paid for by the British Warships Association, but I am sure that the taxpayer will be picking up the cheque at some point.

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