The Royal Navy’s Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent has carried out her first 30mm gunnery firing in a year and a half, according to an update from the ship’s crew.
The exercise, authorised under the command’s live-fire training programme, took place as she heads to the Carribean.
💥 Command approved, 30mm take contact 💥
Yesterday we carried out a live firing exercise of our 30mm gun for the first time in 18 months!#Gunnery #ForwardDeployed #TeamTrent @RoyalNavy pic.twitter.com/lokcUblDQs— HMS Trent (@HMSTrent) August 15, 2025
The ship, which has been permanently based in Gibraltar since 2021, routinely operates across the Mediterranean, Gulf of Guinea and Caribbean. The 30mm DS30B Mark 2 system is Trent’s primary armament, designed for close-in surface defence against small boats, slow-moving aircraft, and other asymmetric threats.
HMS Trent’s operational history since commissioning in August 2020 has been marked by a mix of counter-piracy patrols, multinational training, disaster relief and anti-narcotics work. In recent years she has intercepted multiple drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean, including high-profile seizures alongside the US Coast Guard, and has provided humanitarian support in the wake of hurricanes and tropical storms.
The 2,000-tonne vessel is equipped with Kelvin Hughes SharpEye navigation radar, Terma Scanter 4100 2D surface search radar, and the BAE CMS-1 combat management system operating on the Royal Navy’s Shared Infrastructure platform. She carries two rigid inflatable boats and has a flight deck capable of supporting Merlin helicopters and embarked unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the Puma systems deployed in West Africa.
The DS30B 30mm mount, controlled via an electro-optical director, is designed for rapid engagement of fast inshore attack craft and can be operated manually or remotely. It is backed by heavy and general-purpose machine guns, providing layered defensive firepower for boarding operations, convoy escort and maritime security patrols. The gun’s re-certification through live firing ensures crew readiness for operational tasking across Trent’s diverse mission set.
Ha.
George, you did this deliberately !!!
“Warship” “Opens fire with gun”.
The Daily Mirror would have said “Battleship” lol.
I have suggested before that our George uses such “bait” articles concerning ships GPMGs and other “lowly” weapon systems to get people going.
He replied that this was not so, and that it is an area he is especially interested in.
And as the owner of this site, I’m not about to question that!
Ha, It appears more than a coincidence that a heated debate was ongoing about the RB2’s “Warship” designation !
Humour from the Owner makes me more comfortable here now !
Look at the article histories.
Lots of them on GPMGs and Red Tomato’s that get posters moaning, the uninformed sorts wanting Mk41s on HMS Magpie types.
Bait? Or not.
It was denied by the boss to me personally!
Ha, so where do I look to find these article histories ? all I can see are headings and a search icon.
I’d love to find some posts with Ulya, given the recent comments.
There used to be a function, before the website got (presumably) cyber attacked and the comments were completely rebuilt, to view the comment history of anyone just by clicking on their username. It was useful for checking people’s posting history and seeing who had used multiple names. Incidentally DM had at least 10k comments!
Though what I think DM is referring to is to use the website search function for live fire exercises, and George reports on nearly every one.
It’s fair to say the site owner has his predilections and light gun systems and live firing seem to be one of George’s… as well as random Scottish ship building.
But it’s his site and it’s full of interesting and balances Defence articles so who cares if GPMGs and 30mm cannons get a higher showing than you would expect.
Quiet news day!I was hoping for something regarding the Trump/Putin summit to really get everyone going!
Typical Devonian wanting the Cream first !
Brilliant!
I do wonder if it’s time to review both what the rivers 2s are doing, what they should be doing and what capabilities they need to do the role decided of them.
The RN has always had a sensible policy in regards to the demarcation of major surface combatants and constabulary/patrol vessels. But this was essentially workable because it also had a policy of high low in its major surface combatant fleet, allowing it to have the numbers of major surface combatants it needed 65ish in the Cold War and 30-35 in a peaceful stable world. But it now finds itself due to over 35 years of a mix of RN,MOD and treasury incompetence and poor planning by 2028 it’s likely to have only 11 escorts in service if the type 23s keep up their present rate of decommissioning/decomposition, in 2028 that would be 4 type 23s, a type 31 and 6 type 45s. By 2030 that may have improved a bit with 3 type 26s, 2 type 31s and the last 23 operational.. but if you average out the escort numbers for the last half of the 2020s you are looking at around 11/12 escorts.
This has forced the RN to use its OPVs in a way it has never done before and would not do, and that is essentially sending them on world wide tasking away from UK EEZs. Now this is lovely and cost effective, after all a rivers two costs 130million in capital and ( 2015 costs) is only around 3.5million a year to run vs a major surface combatant which is generally north of 500million to buy and 10-15 million a year to run and everyone is going around raving how great it is we have 2 ships in the pacific for essentially 7 million quid and don’t have to use 2 of our probably only 3-5 available escorts. I will give that in a generally peaceful and stable world of the late 1990s and 2000s that would have been a clear cost effective idea…
BUT ( and I’m purposefully using capitalisation here) we are not in that world..we are not even in a locked in Cold War were we would get significant warning of escalation, we are in a time period when our enemies would use any and all means to attack with little to no warning and have in a case of china even stated its intention to go to war. Therefore sending constabulary vessels across the worlds oceans instead of major surface combatants is counter productive in a number of ways.. 1) it signals weakness to our enemies and does not provide deterrent 2) they lack capability to even defend themselves against moderate asymmetrical attacks.
In the modern threat environment I would suggest even a patrol ship for your own EEZ needs the ability to defend itself against moderate asymmetrical attacks. To send a ship out into the wider threat ridden world with only a 30mm cannon, no appropriate air and surface surface search radar, no fire control radar, no modern fused or guided munitions, no appropriate capabilities to maintain a small ship flight is quite frankly a bit lame, risk laden and counter productive.
At the same time our home waters and EEZ undersea infrastructure are at constant threat from sub kinetic attack and i. The case of war kinetic attack. Personally I think the 5 rivers 2 need a bit of a rethink in purpose and function.
1) HMS FORT as the Falklands guard ship, in reality this ship is functioning as a stand alone patrol frigate for the south Atlantic as the APT(S) has not sent a major surface combatant to the south Atlantic in a decade. In reality outside of the British isles the south Atlantic territory is the UKs single most geostrategically important territory to the UK ( not the west or NATO but to the UK specifically) and needs to have the capability to manage that. So what does HMS FORT need capabilities wise to be a credible stand alone south Atlantic patrol ship..It’s can have its range and endurance reduced to around 4000 nautical miles as it has a very specific patrol area not a long distance from its home base and only needs to be able to cruise between territories. It needs to be able to manage air threats and general surface threats in a credible way that means it needs a proper sensor package with a 3D surface and air search radar and passive sensors as well as an appropriate self defence package, 76mm or 57mm with fire control radar and guided rounds as well as CIWS ( 30mm with air burst fused rounds) and offence based around a small ships fight.. so hanger for a wildcat as well as a set of sub surface and airborne drones that can be managed from the flight/work deck and crane and if you could manage it CAMM in ExLS ( if the Swiss can fit 32 of them on a sub 1000 ton combatant the RN can stick a few on HMS FORT)… essentially you turn HMS fort into short range patrol frigate for the Falklands and south Atlantic..that is a credible match to the navies operating in that region… funding wise you get the Falklands itself to help out and crew wise you develop a local RN reserve formation to support the extra crew needed after all even with its profoundly low tax’s the Falklands runs a budget surplus of 14-15 million a year.. essentially they could pay for the running of a patrol frigate, the Falkland are far wealthier per capita than the rest of the UK .. GDP per head of 75,000, and yet the Uk tax payer spends 110 million a year on defence of the Falklands.
2) four rivers 2 for local EEZ monitoring and protection of underwater infrastructure. They would not need the same sensor or self defence fit as the Falklands fit and could be optimised for under sea and surface monitoring of infrastructure using autonomous systems as well as operating mine warfare systems in the EEZ.. these are 2200 ton ships with good cranes, flight decks, work decks and space for shipping containers. You can easily run plenty of autonomous Systems from them, with very little modifications. Self defence just add a 57mm and a 30mm and they can then manage any asymmetric threats that may pop up in the EEZ.
As for the wider world the RN and HMG need to simply bite the bullet and get more frigates somehow.. letting the major surface combatant fleet decline to 11-12 vessels in the late 2020s when we face a realistic risk of general war across the globe with china, Russia, Iran, North Korea etc is essentially a dereliction of duty. Realistically the RN needs 30 escorts as soon as it can get them, we can bitch about money or crew.. but yes we can find the money and yes you can train crews quicker than the UK can build warships..but infact you need the ships to train the crews..l it’s not a chicken and egg debate..you can get the number of crews you have warships.. you cannot get the crews if you don’t have warships. but you can get warships if you don’t have a crews..so the warships have to come first… one US admiral was very clear.. without a mass of warships you cannot train crews and you loss your crews and quality of your crews.. hulls must come first as part of any workforce plan.
What ever that plan needs to be waiting for British shipbuilding to provided a force of only 19 by 2035 is essentially bonkers.. essentially we are 10+ major surface combatants down on plans that the shipbuilding industry cannot supply within a generation.. so it’s buy secondhand or buy new off someone who is quick at building ships and will sell them… it’s a sad sad place to be but 35 years of fuckery cannot be cured in less than 20-30 years and we don’t have that time… because war may be on us in 3 years.
I’ve always believed constabulary vessels should be constabulary vessels.. and RN warships should alway be new builds in the UK.. but we are moving into a world where even peace is essentially wartime and and world wide kinetic war can come at any moment..in this place and time those two rules simply don’t work.
Still too expensive to fit them to the carriers though.
It’s click bait . Could easily say ‘RN vessel undertakes live fire exercidr’…but hey !@