HMS Hurworth and L.É. Samuel Beckett sailed together following a visit to Dublin by the British vessel.

HMS Hurworth is a Hunt-Class Mine Countermeasures Vessel – a minehunter where as the L.É. Samuel Beckett is an Offshore Patrol Vessel.

The official account for the UK Defence Attaché to Ireland tweeted too.

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

61 COMMENTS

    • You’re way off Martyn. Every class of frontline Warship in the RN & most the supporting ones are UK built too. Of the 23+ escorts in the pipeline for the future every one will be UK built. We build most escorts in Scotland, many modules for the QE carriers were made in England & all our submarines are made in England at Barrow.

        • Well as far as I know all 13 of the Hunt class MCM to which HMS Hurworth in the article belongs were built in England. I would like some of our escorts to be built in England rather than every one in Scotland, lest we lose the capacity & skills to do so, but I don’t resent Scotland doing it either. So long as we build decent escorts etc & rebuild the RN to a level where it both covers all our commitments & deters our enemies I’m happy.

        • Coming in at 7,000t for SSN’s and 15-17,000t for SSBN’s I think the fact that there traditionally called boats is kind of academic.

      • Morning Mark. Hope you are well. Nice to see the big battle ensigns! Samuel Beckett is pleasing to the eye!
        Cheers from Durban

        • Hi Geoff, they are good ships alright and well liked by the crews, only issue is the naming convention a previous minister went with, but sounds are that they will revert to tradition for the two NZ boats when they commission.

    • HMS Hurworth was built in England…
      Appledore is still around and 1/4 of the UK workforce for FSSS will be in Appledore.

      Cammell Laird is also still around and will most likely receive either MROSS 2 or MCM motherships, or both.

      The issue with yards in England is the space. Rosyth has lots of space, as does Belfast.
      CL is quite limited on space.

      Barrow is huge and is being expanded.

      Of course it’s a shame that BAE closed the Portsmouth yard but there’s no other way around it. BAE produces multiple different aircraft types in the UK with 3 main sites and none in Scotland. Most (if not all) of the UK aerospace industry is in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

    • Why is it sad? England has 1 foreign owned steel mill at Port Talbot. In fact all UK military warships are made from Indian steel, namely Arcelor Mittal and Tata, with some speacilist steel from SSAB in Sweden. Ukraine was also a major supplier (Metinvest). People forget the yards in the UK are totally dependent on foreign steel. British Steel never made a profit in it’s existence. Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, US and Germany can produce enough steel to produce their own warships completely independent of foreign nations. The UK can’t, it simply does not have the steel producing capacity, and it will never return to your island.

      • I suspect the residents of Port Talbot might be a tad upset with you saying that they are in England. If you can get the right height for Salisbury Cathedral, you should be able to get the right place for an entire town. B Minus.

        • I find it amazing how a place as tiny as the UK, which in itself is smaller than most states in the US, has different languages and cultures in such a small area.

          • I am amazed that the USA is so big and has a large population but hae no official language of their own and has to rely on Spanish and English. Although I do believe Hawaii has it’s own nation language.

          • Post Brexit, the UK should realise it’s ultimate ambition, to become the 1st US state in Europe.

          • Just because we are Americas most powerful Ally militarily, doesn’t mean we will become a US state.

          • How’s that SMO going?
            Funny how such a small country still has the best military record including post 1945 alone…

          • Best military record since 1945? I take it Iraq, Northern Ireland, Suez, Sinking of the Belgrano, Afghanistan are not included?

          • Why would you even have sinking a hostile cruiser on the list of what I guess you are suggesting are military failures of the U.K.?

          • Not suggesting it was a failure (sinking Belgrano, I take that back) but I was responding to the statement that the UK has the finest military record since 1945, has it? The UK is a puppet for the US, who always get it wrong before they get it right. The UK have shown some great military leadership, I would say it’s handling of the Ukriane crisis has been impeccable, and has had massive global influence in helping sustain Ukraine in opposing Russia. Bit it must admit to it’s failings, and the Iraq war was recent history. WMD in a Iraq was a lie and the war was unnecessary

          • Suez was a military success but a political failure. Proof we weren’t USA’s poodle until the USA said down boy!

          • Wow you really don’t like getting caught out waffling chuff do you! Straight to the anger chapter of caught out waffling troll!

          • Name one country with a better one then.

            Suez was a military victory, not sure why Belgrano is on that list, Iraq wasn’t a failure militarily, Afghanistan again wasn’t really a British decision.

          • Gentlemen-long may the USA and UK be the best of friends and allies, and nice to see the British and Irish navies working together

          • Iraq where the Army smashed the Iraqi forces twice.
            Northern Ireland where the the IRA insurgency was ended and is now a peacfull part of the United Kingdom.
            The Falklands War (I notice how you don’t count the entire war… wonder why), where Britain unilaterally won a war half a globe away.
            Suez, again a military victory that was undone by diplomatic and economic pressure.
            Afghanistan where the Taliban never actually defeated the British Army, just the ANA?
            I also notice you leave out the Malayan Emergency, Bosnia, Sierra Leone etc.

          • We often disagree buy I’m with you on every word of that post. The OP is confusing military and political failure.

          • Afghanistan was not a military failure? IED caused havoc, the British forces were poorly equiped at the start of the invasion.

          • Oh dear, more troll comments. Out of interest do state your country of origin as it would be nice to hear a troll give a location for us to chat and debate about. Don’t be scared.

          • I find it amazing you didn’t know Port Talbot was in Wales! I take it your not from the UK, but another of our resident anti UK lip flappers who hide their troll status behind a keyboard! Not sure if you pretended to be from the UK when you first arrived on this site, and got caught out! Let me peruse your previous posts and I will get back to you.

        • Impossible. The UK does not have enough steel producing capacity. Port Talbot produced coils, up to 10mm thick. Warships are made from plate, not decoil. The UK has no steel plate production on it’s shores, zero. It is all imported into Birkenhead at the Arcelor facility. I know, as I buy & sell steel for a global steel trader.

        • Unsure, I will ask later, the tug is OK though. But good job all the RAF F35s are at Marham, they can’t fall off a runway.

          • Well Russian naval aviation would be the experts in losing aircraft into the sea.

          • 617 squadron actually deployed on QE today.
            There isn’t a single carrier Navy that hasn’t had a crash.

          • O don’t agree with anything you’ve posted but I have to give you credit that that post was funny

  1. Ireland should continue embracing it’s neutrality, rather than playing patsy with its former imperial master.

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