HMS Medway arrived in Florida in time for Christmas, having completed a busy patrol in the Caribbean.
The Royal Navy say here that the ship has been deployed to the region as the Royal Navy’s permanent presence. This year, she has delivered aid to island communities hit by the storms in the wake of two hurricanes – Fiona and Ian.
“Her recent deployment also saw her seizing £24 million of cocaine in a joint operation conducting counter-narcotic sweeps with the US Coast Guard. HMS Medway is deployed to the region on a long-term mission, ready to respond at pace should Caribbean communities – including British Overseas Territories – require assistance.
Throughout the core hurricane season which runs from mid-summer to the end of November, the ship carries a dedicated crisis response troop – Royal Engineers of 24 Commando Regiment – and emergency supplies including bottled water, food, generators and tools to effect repairs. The ship supported twice in a matter of days in September in the wake of Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian.
She arrived in the Turks and Caicos Islands just 12 hours after the Hurricane Fiona passed, where her Team helped to repair the perimeter fence around the airport and restore generators at the prison. HMS Medway then responded to Hurricane Ian after it struck the Cayman Islands, turning up within four hours of the storm, remaining poised to support and offering reassurance that extra help was available if required.”
You can read more about this here.
Hmmm…Christmas in FL or some Carribean island? 🤔 Interesting choice/dilemma, would need to consider that carefully over my rum/grog ration. 😉😁 War is hell, but peacetime patrols need not be, as a necessity.
With the winter bomb about to hit apparently all the way to Texas and Florida maybe it won’t be quite so ‘chilled’ 🤣
Yes, portions of CONUS to undergo a bomb cyclone (meteorological orientations a somewhat distant memory), believe it is something on the order of 24? millibar decrease in barometric pressure w/in 24 hrs.? Lower portion of FL will have more hospitable temperature {Mayport as the berth?)
Sadly I think RN has an agreement with USN to support Medway at Mayport, Jacksonville (the RN naval base at Bermuda is long closed), so she has probably got to go to Florida to have her bottom scraped.
Understand. Unfortunately, temperature in Jacksonville will be affected thru midweek. Presumably HMS Medway carries at least minimal winter gear, even when deployed to Carribean?
A very good point!
It’s been a great success forward deploying the batch 2 in the Caribbean, what a waste of a frigate in the past however the extra utility that could have been had by putting a hangar on the batch II should not be underestimated especially when as above responding to disaster situations.
I suspect the next generation of OPV will have a half hanger for some helicopter type uav. I can’t see them having a full hanger because of the shortage of helicopters.
Or we could do something like this.
https://navalpost.com/u-s-navy-deploys-sm-6-missile-on-usv-ranger/
Totally agree about hangar. They should have built 4 ships with a hangar for the same price as 5 without. The lack of one severely inhibits the ability of these ships to substitute for a frigate on anti-piracy, maritime interdiction and humanitarian missions.
TEU container with 1-2 UAVs would manage the surveillance role just fine and still leave the flight deck capable of receiving helps.
Agree totally. A ship deploying globally needs a hanger.
I believe a NAVY POD is being developed with a UAS, and some OPVs have operated small Puma drones. I suspect we will see containerised UAS on many of these in years to come, including heavy lift quadcopters for ship to shore work.
Still think it would be useful to get something along the lines of HNLMS Pelikaan and have it permanently stationed in the Caribbean.
A small logistical and tanker vessel to help support us and allies whilst also being able to support the islands during hurricane season. Just feel like a tide is to big to be other there and could be more useful somewhere else.
I think better to rotate one of the MRSS into the Caribbean for half the year while OPV based there all year round.
MRSS would offer significantly more capability for disaster missions while offering a useful fleet unit that can be re tasked if needed rather than a bespoke unit.
MRSS may make sense but it won’t be around for a decade at least, if not cancelled long before then. If it survives, six units seem unlikely so that means very difficult to sustain even a partial Caribbean tasking.
Impressively optimistic to dispatch a vessel that is not yet designed funded, built or commissioned. Must be a ship of the “virtual’ RN. 🤔😳😉
HNLMS?
Would be interesting to know what happens to all the drugs they seize. Given that cocaine has medical uses, should it be perhaps past on to UK medical services to save them purchasing it from an other supplier.
I believe they’re disposed of in the ocean – the oceans are large enough that the drugs becomes quickly diluted to the point the pose no threat to sealife.
While the idea of reuse in hospitals is interesting, I think there would be significant issues in testing and assuring quality. Not to mention the potentially troublesome optics of seized drugs being given to patients.
I believe they maintain small samples for the next port visit.😀
Drugs go into the oggin.
The plastic wrappers it comes in are retained as you cannot ditch plastic at sea. When in port It goes ashore as medical haz waste for incineration disposal.