A former Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunter has officially joined the Romanian Navy, where it will support NATO’s efforts to maintain maritime security in the Black Sea.
The vessel, previously known as HMS Pembroke, was commissioned as Capitan Constantin Dumitrescu (M217) during a ceremony at Rosyth, Scotland. The ship was sold to Romania alongside her sister ship, HMS Blyth, through the Defence Equipment Sales Authority, which manages the disposal of surplus UK military equipment.
“We are pleased to see former HMS Pembroke commissioned into the Romanian Naval Forces,” said Major General Rich Cantrill, the Royal Navy’s Commander Operations. “She will play a key role in Black Sea security going forward and this demonstrates the strengthening bond between our two Nations’ militaries.”
Vice Admiral Mihai Panait, Chief of the Romanian Navy, was also present at the ceremony, alongside representatives from Babcock and the UK Ministry of Defence. The Romanian flag was raised over the vessel for the first time, and attendees toured the refurbished ship.
The handover follows an extensive regeneration of the vessel by Babcock and Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S). Commodore Richard Whalley, former Head of Sales and Exports at DE&S, and now Deputy Director Exports and Sales, International Collaboration and Exports at the National Armaments Director Group, said: “We are pleased to have found HMS Pembroke a new home with the Romanian Navy. This agreement highlights the strong relationship we have with our allies and feeds into NATO’s collective mission of supporting global security.”
Babcock’s Marine Sector Chief Executive, Sir Nick Hine, added: “This milestone reflects the importance of international collaboration and capability-building. At Babcock we’re honoured to have played a role in her regeneration.”
At 52.5 metres in length and weighing 485 tonnes, Capitan Constantin Dumitrescu is designed for deep-water mine warfare. It uses high-definition sonar to locate naval mines, which are then neutralised using clearance divers or the ATLAS Seafox mine disposal system.
The Sandown-class is being phased out in favour of autonomous mine countermeasures systems. However, the transfer of these vessels allows NATO allies like Romania to strengthen their regional naval capabilities, especially in light of mine threats in the Black Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The transfer follows similar sales of minehunters to Lithuania, Estonia, Greece, Ukraine, and commercial partners.
I really hate how many militaries around the world have adopted those stupid little hats from the yanks. Looks terrible
Ha! I agree!
Very practical as they usually include a bump cap…..which is essential even if you are a hard headed individual!
They’re called “baseball caps”, grandpa 😏
Tut, tut…ye olde honourable ball cap is an essential element of both high fashion and eminent practicality, developed originally in the mid-19th century as an aid for vision during titanic sporting contests on baseball diamonds. Surely, this is not a critique of America’s premiere sport and national pastime?!? 🤔😉
Not at all! It takes a truly inspired mind to create a game somehow even more boring than cricket!
As a true philistine I wore a baseball cap backwards at the recent Lord’s test match, with nary a tut. They’ll let anyone in these days! (Backwards wasn’t a fashion statment from the 1990s, just where the sun was. It was a very hot day.)
That chap handing the flag over has the French tricolour on his arm? Unless I’m colour blind.?
You’re not colour blind, it’s just a very washed out picture. If you zoom in you’ll see the white bar is in fact very pale yellow
Hang on. MCMV are obsolete we hear? Perfectly able to do the job with other navies, as we see with SNMCMF 1 and 2, but not the RN it seems.
Sad.
A desperation for savings I suspect, throwing them away while the toy boats have yet to arrive, never mind the mothers to deploy them.
Any further news on the Konesberg Vanguard motherships being considered for this? And the T26 for Norway?
I have heard nothing Q, beyond that the 3 mothers needed will progress next year.
As in, next stage of our convoluted and time wasting procurement system, heaven forbid actually placing an order.
Daniele,
Perhaps a more optimistic assessment would be that many countries appreciate and value used RN assets? Brazil, Peru, Romania, Ukraine, etc., are some notable examples.
Yes, a pity we don’t appreciate what we have before throwing it away.
The MOD loves to declare perfectly good kit as obsolete or surplus to requirements.
And they do it years before any replacements are ready. Madness.
Daniele (why can’t we just post replies here without having to put the name up ?), now look here, where the hell do you think all the money is going to come from for all these new 5 year research and feasability studies, if we don’t sell off all our existing assets ??? Hmmm ???
“Jam jam jam jam jam jam jam jam JAMMMMMM wonderful JAMMMMM”
Those day rate hungry project managers and scrum masters love a project and especially a project over run
I’m amazed that people in the MOD think that the RN have ‘surplus ships ‘. No Gulf frigate, other T23’s on life support, no current amphibious capability, SSN’s berthed., RFA withered. And toy boats replacing proper MCM ships. There must be different dictionaries in Whitehall.
Pretty damning stuff, and all true.
I hate the term surplus when we probably need it also why is it we have minehunters like the hunt class ships in service that are from the 1980s yet we surplus off a ship built in 2000 why does that make sense ?
More kit gone far to early ,what is it with UK governments when it comes to Defence 🙄
A black day for the RN. The 2020 decision to prematurely decommission and sell all the Sandown’s by 2025 without immediate replacement should be right up there with losing Ark Royal in 2010 on the list of worst defence cuts in the last 50 years – based upon the importance of the military capability sacrificed for the “savings” achieved. The ambitious but implausibly cheap future Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) Programme is very foreseeably running many years behind schedule (5? 10? Limited operational capability maybe 2027? Nominally fully operational early/mid 2030’s?), is probably grossly over budget (good luck trying to figure out the full cost from official sources), and won’t deliver anything close to the capability that the elderly Sandown’s and Hunt’s were providing from the early 1990’s until recently.