HMS Richmond, a Type 23 Frigate assigned to HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Carrier Strike Group, is leading the fleet into the Mediterranean Sea.

The Strike group will travel over 26,000 nautical miles from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, from the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Sea, and from the Indian Ocean to the Philippine Sea, engaging with 40 countries.

This deployment will end in December 2021.

Besides HMS Richmond, the Strike Group comprises aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, Type 45 destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond (although this ship has had recent issues), Type 23 anti-submarine frigate HMS Kent, and tanker and storage ships Fort Victoria and RFA Tidespring.

In Addition, there’s an Astute class submarine, an American destroyer and a Dutch frigate.

You can read more about that the Carrier Strike Group has been up to by visiting the link below.

 

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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17 COMMENTS

  1. Silly question time from the ex pongo.

    Above picture , 3 baffles on top of the ship, one above the bridge, 2 at the back, what are they?

    • Just spoilers to make it look cool Farouk, part of the BAE systems options pack, together with tinted Bridge windows, front and rear fog lights and parking sensors.

      The RN could have gone for a three stage perl paint finish too, but thought that was too flashy….

    • Morning Farouk. And here is another question-off topic but pertaining to the RN. Wikipedia’s list of RN Aircraft carriers states that the Invincible Class Ark Royal displaced 20 000 long tons i.e. 2000 tons lighter than Invincible and Illustrious. Does anyone know why that should have been the case? A further mystery-in the Wikipedia article on Ark Royal it states that she was “slightly larger” than her sister ships(!?). I suppose she could have been larger in a key dimension and lighter for some other reason, but 2000 tons is a big lump of steel or something.
      Any of you Naval boffins have an answer to both queries?
      One may wonder why this is important to know. I did an article some years ago as to why the Natal sporting colours were Black and White. One would have thought that surely such a basic question would have a definitive answer written somewhere in stone? Well it wasn’t and I came up with 6 possible explanations!! Anyone who might have known the answer is dead and gone now so this will continue to puzzle for time immemorial. So please apply yourselves clever lads and record this for posterity before this query suffers a similar fate😂

      • I believe the Ark was slightly longer than her sister ships, but only by a matter of inches. It’s usually the case with ships of the same class due to minor discrepancies in the build process. For example, POW is said to be longer than QE, but only by a fraction.

        Ark had a few subtle differences when compared to her sisters, including, for a time, a steeper ski jump. Although the other ships had theirs changed, Ark’s always remained distinctive. She was also the only ship in the class to have phalanx.

        I wouldn’t overly trust Wiki, Geoff. Anyone can edit it, meaning that all manner of information can be added to articles. I mean, if you look closely, it states that Vince was 689 ft (210 Metres) long, 210 m (690 ft) for Lusty and Ark’s states “210 m (689.0 ft) (689 ft)”. The measurements aren’t even consistent! I’ve had a look and on old BBC article states “20,000 tons”. However, it also states “210 metres (683 feet)”. Ugh!

        D&ES puts the weights at the time of scrapping as:

        Vince: 17,000 tonnes
        Lusty: at least 16,000 tonnes
        Ark: 19,000 tonnes

        Note the use of ‘tonnes’. I would put your weight (giggles) down to two things: either a poor source or people confusing their ‘ton’ types!

        Other pages state that the FAA has 174 aircraft (I wish!) and some pages (I think one of the RAF ones at least) get their numbers from internet blogs that count ALL UK military aircraft, rather than RAF-specific airframes.

        • Hi Lusty. Great info as always-many thanks. As to the Tons/tonnes confusion my source quoted all in tons so took it to be apples for apples. I would however admit to ordering 2 metres of 3×2(inches!!) from our local hardware almost 50 years since we converted here in SA, but at least we are ahead of our American cousins who still battle along with US gallons and feet etc.!! The quest to record and catalogue the correct information is a peculiarly British/Anglosphere trait-I loved the scene from Zulu Dawn when the Quartermaster handing out ammo was insisting on the correct paperwork while the Zulus were rapidly breaking the British lines!! We still dont know where our Provincial colours originated from though I have my favourites from the 6 options and of course, despite regular new books claiming to have finally identified Jack the Ripper that is one answer we will never have!
          Finally, my 1978 copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships had an illustration of Invincible with a flat deck and described as a through deck cruiser!
          A Rose by any other name😂
          Cheers from durban

          • No worries, and hi.

            Back to tons/tonnes, yeah, wiki uses tons… but where did they quote from? 😉 A betting man would say that someone somewhere got a conversion wrong! Either that or they didn’t check for other sources.

            Interesting snippets as usual. Maybe one day you’ll find out! The Invincibles were indeed described as ‘through-deck cruisers’. though they were a far cry from the big guns of the past!

            Cheers from wet Blighty.

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