Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey has showcased its gunnery prowess during Exercise La Pérouse, a multinational naval drill spearheaded by the French Navy in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a Ministry of Defence press release.
The exercise, part of the Clemenceau 25 mission led by France’s flagship aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle, focused on securing three critical maritime choke points: the Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok Straits.
Together, these waterways handle over half of the world’s shipping traffic, making their security vital to global trade and stability.
As quoted in the press release, HMS Spey, currently deployed in the Indo-Pacific alongside her sister ship HMS Tamar, joined an elite task group comprising HMCS Ottawa (Canada), INS Mumbai (India), and other French naval units. The Royal Navy vessel participated in high-intensity scenarios in the Sunda Strait, a narrow waterway near the iconic Krakatoa volcano.
During the drills, HMS Spey was tasked with evading detection by a French frigate and a maritime patrol aircraft in the Java Sea. This was followed by a simulated aerial attack by fast jets launched from Charles de Gaulle. As the jets closed in, Spey’s crew executed rapid evasive manoeuvres while simultaneously responding to simulated strikes that required the ship’s firefighting teams to tackle a “major fire” under combat conditions.
“It got pretty intense,” said Able Seaman Ashley Sandbrook, who was part of the firefighting team, as quoted in the news release. “Your training kicks in, and everyone pulls together to do what needs to be done.”
The exercise culminated in a gunnery drill where HMS Spey’s crew delivered a standout performance. Initially tasked with engaging two of four targets laid by French frigates, Spey destroyed its first target with a precise opening salvo from its 30mm cannon.
The strike was so effective that exercise directors cancelled the second target shoot to ensure other ships had targets to engage.
The eight-day exercise, involving nine nations and spanning over 1,000 miles of ocean, provided a unique opportunity for HMS Spey to operate in a tactically demanding environment.
Hopefully that lays to rest all the stories that the 30mm is manually aimed etc….
Fine vessels for presence and constabulary duties. Excellent training ground for officers and trades in a less complex ship where singular responsibilities rest on singular shoulders…..
No use at all for war fighting.
Upgrading to a 40mm upfront and some sort of hangar with maybe the 30mm on the roof would be nice to have on these B2 Rivers.
Congratulations. You’ve double the price per unit, increased the crew needed by 33% and halved the availability rates due to increased weapons and aircrew maintenance in one fell swoop.
Patrol ships don’t fight and we don’t need to waste time and money pretending they do, these B2s excell at their intended role in every corner of the planet. Adding weaponry that does nothing besides virtue signal is not a useful investment of resources, what makes patrol ships great is availability (something the B2s are brilliant for due to their design), surveillance capabilities (aided by the potent 2D radar and various onboard drones they already can operate without extensive aviation facilities) and modularity (that nice big open space at the back everyone wants to slap a hangar on let’s these ships do a hell of a lot more than the tin said they could). The 30mm DS30M is a great weapon system that paired with early warning from the ships radar is perfectly capable of C-UAS point defense (citing HMS Diamonds experience) and provides more than enough deterrence against anything they will come up against in the open ocean, on top of that it’s cheap and *most importantly* doesn’t dictate the ship to sit in dock of multiple weeks every year having maintenance performed on it like any heavier gun systems require.
DSTL and Babcock say that the newest 40mm mount actually needs less maintenance than the 30mm, so no, not really.
The extra flexibility of ammunition and the range boost would be a massive help to the range of possible targets for a River.
Not to mention the intimidation effect of a big grey turret on the bow rather than an overgrown RWS.
The effort is going into getting the T31s into service.
I hope they have an opportunity to remember the brave RN crews lost in these water in 1942 as part of the ABDA strike force. Sadly many of wrecks have been pillaged by illegal Chinese salvagers but those sailors deserve to be remembered.
As for the exercise it is a great opportunity for RN officers relatively young in their careers to experience leadership in a far flung location that can only be good for them and the Navy. Indeed, even when we have more frigates available (2030s) allowing one or more of them to be be deployed to the region I would suggest HMS Tamar and Spey remain in theatre. The costs are peanuts but the benefits are significant both in developing relationships with allies, improving the skills of personnel and helping with recruitment.
The French war ministry are selling their stock of WW2 rifles they’ve never been fired and only dropped once. ♾️❤️☮️
England expects every man to do his duty.
As a laymen , can these patrol vessels be upgraded for offensive capabilities or do they just have basic defence capabilities and if that is the case what is the point of them
Small nations look to the UK as a respected democracy with a military capability. The R2s were deployed in order to re-establish a UK presence in Asia Pacific, to reassure friends and influence new friends who might be a tad nervous and vulnerable at Chinese expansionism. They are there to build relationships by undertaking diplomatic and humanitarian aid tasks, perform constabulary and anti piracy work and to give small nations a friend to call on when they are threatened. At 2000 tons and with their camouflage paint job the R2 make an impression. In any deteriorating diplomatic scenarios their job is to be present and act as a trip wire, ideally for diplomatic activity rather than conflict.
“The strike was so effective that exercise directors cancelled the second target shoot to ensure other ships had targets to engage.”
Those cheeky matelots must remember to share…
BZ HMS Spey.