HMS Duncan was deployed to safeguard British shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Royal Navy say in a release that the Type 45 destroyer passed through the narrow waters 29 times – protecting 1.28m tonnes of British merchant vessels (tankers, liquid natural gas, container and cargo ships) from interference.
“When we arrived in the Gulf it was extremely hot, there was real uncertainty and a genuine threat. In protecting shipping, we did what the Royal Navy has done for hundreds of years,” said Commander Tom Trent, Duncan’s Commanding Officer.
“It was rewarding because we could measure what we achieved: 29 transits of the Strait, 26 ships accompanied and not one ship was taken on our watch.”
According to the Royal Navy:
“The mission Duncan completed her deployment performing was very different from that which she set out to perform back in March.
The destroyer joined French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle as part of the multinational Carrier Strike Group GAN 19 operating off Syria on Operation Inherent Resolve; HMS Duncan provided air defence to the group as part of operations against ISIS forces in the region.”
So no power problems whilst operating in the Arabian Gulf.
Has this ship been upgraded or they mitigating the issue when on operations?
I don’t think any have been upgraded yet, they have all just had temporary mitigation. I think the first ship to be modified will be sometime in 2020.
Cheers
do we still have any assets out there??
Yeah we still have HMS Montrose based in the gulf and HMS Kent replaced HMS Duncan and RFA Wave Knight with a wildcat embarked is in the area now, I’m not sure what RFA cardigan bay and her helicopter if embarked and the 4 mine hunters are upto in the protecting UK vessels Caper in the gulf. A bay class with Royal Marines and 8 to 10 of their fast fully armed attack boats would be great for the gulf and a Merlin embarked for top cover and fast roping, Fight fire with fire.
HMS Defender is in the region too. So:
Type 23:
-HMS Montrose
-HMS Kent
Type 45:
-HMS Defender
Sandown Class:
-HMS Shoreham
-HMS Blyth
Hunt Class:
-HMS Brocklesby
-HMS Ledbury
Bay Class:
-RFA Cardigan Bay
Wave Class:
-RFA Wave Knight
There’s also embarked Wildcat helicopters on the escorts and Wave Knight, as well as the staff and FSU mentioned by Gunbuster.
The T45 power issues where sorted out over 2 years ago by extra monitoring of the Recouperater performance and some other mods to systems . I worked on the T45 that had the mods and they had no issues working in the Gulf in the middle of summer at all. As confidence grew from the users the way of operating the ships matured to what was originally envisaged. That is GT alternators providing propulsion power and hotel load and the DG sets used only as emergency or standby power provision for something like restricted waterway navigation.(specials) The DG mods that… Read more »
Many thanks Gb. Always best to go to them that knows rather than just reads.
I’m with Barry, fascinating and inciteful.
Thanks, as ever, incite full, informative and interesting.
I have a question based on the C5 documentary about HMS Duncan. When the ship was ordered to proceed at speed to Syria the destination was kept secret from much of the crew and the film crew. One of the ship’s company said she did not know where they were heading, but that it was urgent as you could hear the gas turbines and they only used them for something serious.
Would this suggest they normally use the DG’s or perhaps just one GT?
Just interested.
Thanks.
The vessel can run around on one GT doing regular cruising speeds and provide the Hotel load for systems. If you up revs you need the other GT on because you need more electrical power. The current DGs where not designed to run 24/7 they where for emergency use and standy use only. Its a lot quicker to bring a DG on line than a GT in an emergency and two different completely different systems increase redundancy and lower single point of failure When operating with the full electrical load on, the load is split between each GT alternator. If… Read more »
Thank you for that, really interesting.
Gunbuster – that’s very interesting,i thought that traditionally the DG’s were used for cruising/pottering about and the GT’s were brought online for Sprinting and Full Load etc,is that not the case or does it vary with Ship class ?.
Hi,
Interesting with the new 3 DG and 2 GT will the T45 be faster?
Rob – quite possibly although like HMS POW the Type 45,s exceeded the design speed quite comfortably when on Sea Trials.
In a way it is a good thing all this has happened, it has drawn public attention to the fact that we need the Royal Navy which will only help our case to increase its size.
It’s uncanny how this happens. The Falklands being the most obvious example. Divine intervention some might say.
Did the Iranians ever release the ship they boarded or is it effectively being held hostage now until they see what the Saudi response will be?
Just googled it, looks like they did last Friday.