According to the Royal Navy in a news release, weeks of intensive training has seen HMS Hurworth “prove her readiness to support NATO on minehunting operations around Europe”.

The statement reads

“The ship’s company took her around the UK to prepare for the deployment, undergoing tests on their equipment, gunnery drills and emergency scenarios. The minehunter has joined NATO Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 1 and will support on historic ordnance clearance and other minehunting exercises. But to ensure she was ready, Hurworth’s Crew 3 were put through their paces starting with a visit from the Fleet Operational Sea Training (FOST) team before a difficult transit north through the Pentland Firth. They had to battle bad weather, high sea states and strong tides, finally getting to Lamlash Harbour on the Isle of Arran.

Within the harbour, they tested their remotely-piloted underwater vessel Seafox which is used to locate mines while the Officers of the Watch practised manoeuvring the ship. Hurworth then headed to HMNB Clyde for two weeks of assessments to ensure they can deploy with NATO. During the fortnight, they tested navigating without GPS and with defects to the bridge, firefighting, damage control and live firing of their weapons. They also completed a winching exercise with the Coastguard and practised against attacks from fast boats with P2000 HMS Raider acting as the enemy.”

Commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Simon Reeves, was quoted as saying:

“The ship’s company have had a busy period at sea preparing HMS Hurworth for NATO and contingent tasking, undertaking complex navigation serials, internal damage control and tailored warfare scenarios.I am very proud of my team who have displayed grit and determination to ensure Hurworth is ready to deploy once again on operations overseas, protecting our nation’s interests and upholding the reputation of the Royal Navy.

They have shown commitment and drive needed to continue to deliver our operations. We stand united with NATO delivering security and prosperity to our area of operations, by ensuring trade routes remain open and removing historical ordnance from the ocean seabed.”

You can read more on this here.

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

47 COMMENTS

          • Hunts are at Pompie and 2 are deployed to the Gulf, based in Bahrain.
            Sandowns are in Faslane and at least one is deployed in the Gulf.
            They are supported in the Gulf by a Bay class who acts as mothership and command ship at sea.

            Sandowns are going first with their capability being replaced by USuV MCM.

            Hunts will remain hanging around for a lot of years yet.

            A number of MCM USuV’s and not just UK assets , can and has deployed from the Bay class.

          • Another topic entirely.

            One autonomous system is already in place at Faslane.

            I believe Hunts will stick around longer than the Sandowns.

            I see the advantages of modern tech and autonomus MCM but I also value the ability of a MCMV to self deploy and regret the reduction in hulls.

            Mother ships still needed, as are the divers that accompany the MCMV I believe.

          • I agree we may well on the way with development of the autonomous systems, but they still need a crewed vessel to operate from.

            its one area I’ve not really Seen a plan I understand coming out of the RN on mine warfare…lots of discussions on the development of new autonomous systems, but no real discussion or consideration on how the we be deployed and from what ships.

            I could see the Rivers B2s ending up supporting this role. I know in the end the T32 is meant to be a autonomous systems mother ship, but will the RN want to use one of its precious 6000 ton frigates for mine warfare ? So I suspect the patrol ships will be asked to do this.

            I do think the question needs to be asked around deployment of autonomous systems in the future and does the RN need a dedicated 1000-2000 ton hulled stealthy warship in numbers as a mother for all the new Autonomous systems coming along in the next decade. A sort of Black swan concept sloop v1.2+ That is designed to operate in the littoral environment, with its capability focused around systems and not the ship, as well as low crew needs ( with the crew going up and down with the systems put into play).

          • I’d prefer to see mother vessels than use the Rivers. In numbers as you describe.
            Our escorts are too few and the Rivers won’t be dispersed doing what they do if they use them as mother.

          • Would be nice to see something cheap procured in numbers along the lines of the black swan sloop of war to fill out the numbers, T32 will be great for an embarked task force but 5 won’t go far. We need something more along the lines of commercial offshore supply vessels sub $50 million each that can deploy drones for MCM and secondary ASW.

          • Yes we could for sure however my preference would be for something larger along the lines of the MOD study on black swan. Working on the premise of steel being cheap and air being free a vessel in the 2000-3000 tone range with a minimal crew of just 8 or up to 40 depending on mission modules. Effectively a drone carrier using off the shelf oil company support vessels armed with 30mm and LMM missile launchers. They can then perform MCM and hydrographic work. However they can have a secondary asw capability by supporting UUV and helicopters. Their large size also allows them to perform disaster relief and support for amphibious landings. They can even support offensive anti ship operations by supporting sea venom armed helicopters, UAV and UCAV’s. It’s kind of like the LCS in the US navy but instead of a $400 million 35 knot gucci speed boat it’s a diesel powered offshore supply vessel capable of 18 knots. Obviously modules cost money however increasingly off the shelf technology can be used and all of this tech is designed to operate off of OSV’s. Get 20 of these forward deployed around the world with minimal crews and modules can be flown out on C17 as required.

            https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joint-concept-note-1-12-future-black-swan-class-sloop-of-war-a-group-system

          • I may be mistaken, but took the 32s to be carriers of other future autonomous stuff of a more fightly variety and thought an OTS STUFT type solution may suffice for the MCM “Mother vessel” work.

          • At the moment the less righty stuff seems to have disappeared and it looks like MCM will be spread across T32 and T26 in modules. Having such ships will be great for a task force but I agree we need something less fighty in numbers to replace MCM and Hydrographic Vessels.

          • Yes, and as an example a Bay has sat being wasted to its core role for years in the gulf, supporting MCMVs. Even with the new tech it still needs a mother, and warships should be off doing what they do not used for that, in my view.
            They also cannot self deploy, again using a warship may not always be certain or even desirable, given the minimal surface fleet the RN now has.

          • Hi Daniele

            i agree, for me the Rivers should only be used in benign environments as patrol vessels as that’s what they were build for. But knowing where the the recapitalisation is I’m not sure we we see dedicated mother ships for a while yet…and I’m sort of betting they will decommission the mine warfare vessels way before that.

          • True indeed, if it’s the systems that provide that capability, then the hull is secondary and why not a civilian standard, especially for something like hauling around the mine warfare systems.

          • The Dutch/Belgium City class MCMV have adopted a slightly different approach to MW. These are motherships with a degree of automated systems onboard, not quite at the levels we are utilising. The weigh some 2600-3000 tonnes and have a crew of between 29-63 depending on mission set.
            Something along these lines might do the trick, as we still need to get said systems to where they are needed, set them up operationally, then recover them on completion.

          • Yes with a bit of a mod that would also work Im sure. However, getting crews for anything looks like being the current problem along with money!

          • City class is the right idea but still too expensive at €1.1 billion for 6. Too much of a warship built by warship builders unaware of price points below £100 million.

            What’s the point in putting a Bofors 40mm on anything. The oil and gas industry has been using ROV and UUV’s for decades and has an entire supply chain built around it the navy should just use that. Bypass warship manufactures who don’t know the first thing about operating such vessels or creating platforms to do so.

          • Yes, they are a tad expensive I know, and don’t need a 40mm on the front either, but its the right sort of idea.
            Wouldn’t know how the Oil & Gs industry stacks up, but certainly well worth a look at also. I don’t believe that we will use the T32 or indeed a T26/31 for this too often, so a cheaper ,smaller lean manned alternative would probably be preferable.

        • Hmmm. Interesting thoughts on costs.

          As I make, the current cost of a Sandown, Hunt and River class work out at roughly £100m, £120m, £140m each.

          Speculating, I wonder if there is a place for a Type 31/32 vs Type 26 style stripped out version of an OPV to provide a potential home waters patrol or mine hunter type vessel. To be the platform. And we are low on hulls for patrol vessels.

          Type 31 seems to have been a successful cost-control exercise.

          What would that come in at cost-wise?

          Perhaps with a complement of 25-30 rather than 50-60.

          The issue with that might be that the Rover Batch 2 is already perceived as stripped out in some quarters 😉.

  1. Hi folks hope all is well.
    As part of training, and appears to be very comprehensive full on which you would expect from one of the most professional experienced navy in the world.
    I was wondering if this is a prelude to opening up the seas around Ukraine in order to help with escorting grain shipments? Can’t recall who mentioned from government or MOD the idea of the Royal Navy providing escorts for such shipping? I’m not able to locate a reference to this issue.
    Cheers
    George

    • Hi George. I’d have thought the Turkish, Romanian & Bulgarian navies have plenty of MCM & frigates/corvettes already present in the Black sea to escort grain ships, not that I’d oppose any other NATO members assisting Ukraine in any way.

    • The RN is training up Ukr on 2 x Sandowns who will be transferred to them . This has been a long term plan anyway but the timeline has just been accelerated of late.

    • I think that’s out because of the Montreux Convention, short of things smaller than 5.1m above the water clearance going down the Rhine / Danube.

      Given that both are now running low, perhaps they can be a bit taller if shallow draft.

  2. What is it doing? How do you make the money? The scam advisor sites give that website address a very poor rating. This indicates it’s a scam.

    • Eventually there be able to slap a navy pods minehunting container on any vessel so in theory any vessel once that’s up and running.

      • You need a vessel with a crane that can lift and shift an 11 Metre work boat along with all of its 4 tonnes of kit fitted. That limits the vessels it can currently be fitted to to say a STUFT Rig Support vessel or a BAY/LPD who have a large deck crane.

        You will also need a fair amount of space for at least 3-4 x 20ft Iso Containers, 3x towed mag influence sweep barges, ARCMIS boat cradles, maintenance support, ammunition containers, crew accom, diver support (Decom Pot) and other bits of kit.

        Its not a small footprint but it is quickly deployable to a theatre by C17

        • Makes you wonder why they never followed through with the black swan class as this is exactly what it’s purpose would serve.
          Hopefully if they have sense every ship in the shipbuilding strategy should provide this space as standard going forward.

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