The Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces Squadron is gearing up for a major mission in the Arctic, with four of its P2000 fast patrol craft set to head for Norway next month to participate in NATO’s Exercise Joint Viking 2025, according to a press release from the Royal Navy.
The deployment aims to bolster NATO’s defence of Europe’s northern flank and will see the small but agile warships supporting Royal Marines of the UK Commando Force in the demanding Arctic environment.
The P2000s—HMS Blazer, Charger, Puncher, and Trumpeter—will spend two months navigating sub-zero temperatures and operating in fjords along Norway’s Troms county. The deployment is part of the Coastal Forces Squadron’s evolving role, transitioning from a training unit to a key player in frontline small craft operations supporting UK and NATO missions.
The Arctic’s extreme conditions, with temperatures plunging to as low as -30°C, present both challenges and opportunities for the crews. As Chief Petty Officer Nicholas Brooks, Marine Engineer Officer of HMS Puncher, explained in the news update: “The Coastal Forces Squadron deploying to Norway has become an annual event and offers an opportunity for our small engineering teams to operate in harsh environments, often isolated from the safety of the support networks back in the UK. This unforgiving environment provides a unique opportunity for the team and whole crew to push ourselves and our kit.”
The patrol boats will act as covert assets during the exercise, carrying out a variety of roles, including covert surveys of fjords, gathering intelligence, inserting raiding teams, and simulating enemy forces against NATO vessels.
Lieutenant Lara Martin, Commander of HMS Charger, noted: “As a task force, we will develop our ability to work with NATO units. As the Royal Navy, individually we’ll be navigating in constricted waters requiring precise navigational planning and ship handling.”
The P2000s, each crewed by just five sailors, will depart Portsmouth in early February, making 13 stops across the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Norway before reaching their operational hub in the port of Harstad. There, they will collaborate with Royal Navy dive teams and mine warfare specialists to ensure operational success.
Commander Carla Higgins, Commanding Officer of the Coastal Forces Squadron, highlighted the significance of the mission: “Exercise Joint Viking 2025 is another fantastic opportunity for Coastal Forces Squadron to demonstrate their increasing capability across a range of roles and environments. It also highlights our ability to work seamlessly side-by-side with UK and NATO forces.”
Reflecting the squadron’s historical role in small, fast boat operations reminiscent of WWI and WWII, Commander Higgins emphasised the evolving nature of Coastal Forces, blending crewed vessels and autonomous equipment to deliver enhanced maritime security both at home and overseas.
As Lieutenant Lara Martin summed up: “As far as the Commanding Officers of HMS Puncher, Blazer, Trumpeter, and myself in Charger are concerned, bring on the challenge!”
I hope they have good heating!
Are these Archers really appropriate for Artic ops? Is the RN doing things on the cheap here? What’s the seakeeping of these ships? Wouldn’t some ice strengthend B2 Rivers or Kongsberg Vanguards be better or Harry Dewolf AOPVs? As Paul P said below, time to get the T32 happening!?
Beat me to it.
Open bridge for arctic operations….rather you than me…..
we should offer them to Norway they do very little for the RN we don’t even arm them
Looks like the RN is making a point – the demand for Arctic operations and that we don’t have suitable ships. With respect to T32 my point is that even if you believe we need more frigates ( and I do) we are in no position to build them until the T26 and T31 programs are close to completion. Meanwhile there is an urgent emerging requirements for capabilities in MCMV, sub surface asset protection, Arctic patrol, force protection etc which as you point out, need different types of vessel. We could buy these or, since they are typically smaller than a frigate maybe build them at other shipyards e.g. Appledore / Navantia
Actually T32 would have to be ordered quite soon to keep Rosyth fully occupied.
Boat #1 is due to lunch
#2 won’t be far behind that
#3 + 4 some blocks will be quite advanced now
probably only #5 that is left to start.
Ah! I understand. So I can see the attraction of ordering additional T31 hulls on the assumption that the basic design and fit out can be optimised for required roles before and after construction. Bird in the hand etc….
Doing things on the cheap that desteoyers and frigates used to do along a Carrier of the illustrious class and going back, centaur class.
Brian, having read the tasks undertaken by these boats on this exercise, you really would not justify sending four Type 45 Air Defence destroyers. Very debatable whether the sending of four frigates would be a justified use of naval resources. The tasks ae well suited to P2000s.
I like how the role of the Coastal Forces Squadron is being expanded…
But those Archer class are getting old and we need a modern replacement with decent weaponry
Is investment in the Coastal Forces Squadron a higher priority than T32?
Since we know what coastal forces can do but have no clear idea what T32 might be, or whether the RN could crew them, then yes.
Pretty sure a tiny speed boat like this is far far cheaper than even a single frigate
Great if the Coastal Forces squadron is expanding its role from a purely training role to frontline op’s.
But the Archers are 40 years old, pretty slow and basically unarmed.
Surely it’s time for a replacement, although I’ve not even seen one discussed, let alone planned.
They are a bit past it. Daft thing is it is a cheap replacement for something that can perform multiple tasks. Plenty of good designs out there and well armed.
we should offer them to Norway they do very little for the RN we don’t even arm them .
On one hand you could say it’s a good use of an available asset.
On the other, it shows how desperate some areas of the military have become if we need to re route URNU assets.
Do they have the 20mm I keep hearing about, or fitted for?
Assume a pair of GPMG.
Are they built to warship standards in any way? One Drone flying past and good night.
transf6 the archers to the border force
we should offer them to Norway they do very little for the RN we don’t even arm them . they’ve been used by hooray Henry’s as fanny boats.
Counter point:
A great opportunity for junior commanders to gain experience commanding a surface vessel with minimal risk.
Talking sense down here falls on deaf ears… According to people here if it isn’t bristling with near useless medium caliber guns, VLS cells or the make believe ‘containerised CAMM’ UKDJ commenters invented when pretending the B2 Rivers are suitable contenders to become surface combatants and has deck space that we could totally “just bolt our old harpoons onto easy fix,” (a legitimate quote taken from a UKDJ commenter) it’s not at all useful to the RN and should be scrapped.
God forbid a vessel be primarily used for crucial officer and cadet training at a time when recruitment is stagnating or takes on test bed roles for unmanned systems and future inshore MCM capabilities. The irony really comes from the people complaining about lack of weaponry yet being completely unaware of the armed P-2000s that rotate in and out of the vitally important Faslane Patrol flotilla or the occasions when they have been sent down to Cypress to provide emergency stop gap coastal defense against possible sea bourn terrorism during Iraqi Freedom.
The answers are essentially no they are built to civilian standards and have RRP hulls, believe a couple of them still have the fittings for 20m cannon.
They’ll be praying for global warming. 😎
Apart from P.R. completely pointless.
Could these boats not be used for stopping and returning migrant boats, instead of this.
“Mohamed” Starmer,s priority is to welcome illegals especially muslims, defence is not interesting at all for him.
No
Would they be more use policing thr illegal immigrants crossing the Channel, returning them to France?
They’re tiny boats, ignoring that we would not be allowed to take them back to France, you could not put dozens of people on then
I think I am hearing China laughing their heads off. Those tiny open air boats would not qualify for fishing in China vast fishing fleet. Even as tourists boats, it is inefficient. Is this Artic venture an April fool joke?
These are essentially civilian police riverine and harbour patrol boats…they are not even a naval constabulary type standard..they have low output engines fitted as well. These were cheap vessels purchased as training vessels for the RN reserve…quite frankly having them cross the North Sea in winter and play around the coast of Norway is probably a real challenge in seamanship.
So fine for these to mess around as a training opportunity..what what are they training for as you cannot use these in war and the RN does not have front line small boats….
The conclusion is that if they are spending time send out these vessels then they are probably thinking about purchasing actual small surface combatants… it now would not surprise me at all if we did not see something in the new defence review about a 250-500 ton coastal corvette force.
Worth noting that they often are used as OPfor, in terms of locating, obtaining a fire solution, or “simulating” launching a ASM at a Frigate or other target, you don’t actually need a large surface combatant. A small combatant like a P2000 can be used to represent a much larger vessel, and, since nobody is actually shooting, it doesn’t actually represent a training deficit.
Plus a hungry junior commander with his P2000 might pull off some unintended tricks that the OM’s might not have thought of with a notional target that’s just software.
Where do we think a latge part of our RN officers come from in peacetime? And where do we find the reserve officers if we need to mobilise? Answer is the sixteen University Royal Navy Units, who churn out a steady stream of young officers and a large pool of reserve ones who would be called up on mobilisation.
They learn their initial seacraft in the Archers, which are well-suited for the role. They need a suitable replacement before they get much older. However, using Archer as a frontline vessel in wartime is a bit desperate. If we need small raiding craft to support the RM raiding group in Norway, they would need the sea legs to get there without creeping along the European coast and would need some armament and light air defence.
For UK coastal patrol, we really need an upgunned OPV, with some ASW capability, and ideally a corvette of around 3,000 tons, which could take on some of the overseas stations, like Gib/West Africa and the Caribbean, and also serve as a convoy escort in wartime.
Crazy to send these to Norway. I was seasick on them when still alongside!
Seems a pretty desperate measure, the RN is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Which bright spark came up with this idea because I can bet you, he or she is not going to be on these boats during the exercise. Utterly ridiculous. These boats were never built or intended to be used in such an environment and calling them ‘warships’ is a complete and utter misnomer. The Swedes, Norwegians and Finns have far better and more appropriate assets than these boats.
Vlad will be worried…. The british home fleet out in force….. Sad show if you ask me (nobody has)..
We need more ships and we sell the big ones and take motor launches on big exercises…
Bunch of Debbie downers on this thread as per usual I see. Can’t help but see the negative and some still believe the 32 was ever real. Bojo misspoke no way the royal navy have 3 frigate projects on the go at once. For those thinking the shipyards won’t be busy after the frigates are done the T45 replacement will need built
Did Boris misspeak or was he misled by the naval lobby? Have often wondered about that.
We know the RN’s original plan was that the T31s would be rushed into service to replace the clapped-out T23s. These T31s would be designated T31E, the E standing for Export. They would then build a more capable version to replace the Es, which would be sold off. We can assume that this souped-up version was referred to as the T32.
Of course that plan lasted about 5 minutes, as there was no way the RN budget could stretch to a furth class of escorts. The T31, T26 and T83 account for the entire equipment budget for the next two decades. The idea of an additional T32 class depended entirely on new money being made available, which was a non-starter: any new money will be needed just to fund the T26 and T83 programmes.
I wonder if Boris was not just repeating the RN’s pitch to him?
So, Archer is value for recruitment, training and force protection: but the Coastal Defence squadron needs half a dozen ‘corvettes’. Skjold class or Avant 2200?
Why aren’t they in the Channel to deter the illegal chancers Labour want to encourage ?