Type 23 Frigate HMS Montrose is the first Royal Navy warship to be overhauled in a new port in the Middle East.

The Royal Navy say that the harbour at Duqm in Oman has been carved out of sand and stone over the past decade and is now both an important commercial port in the region – and a useful staging post for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels operating in the Middle East.

Britain also signed a deal with Oman to develop facilities at Duqm to support RN operations in the region, including carrier deployments (the new port has the second largest dry dock in the Middle East), developing a joint logistics support base.

According to a Royal Navy news release here:

“Naval vessels have been making use of Duqm for the past five years – the port was the hub for the major Saif Sareea amphibious exercise with the Omanis in 2018. Now, the Royal Navy has made use of Duqm Naval Dockyard – the joint venture between the Oman Drydock Company and defence firm Babcock, who conduct maintenance and refits on British warships, especially frigates like Montrose.

Montrose has been based in the Gulf for nearly two years as part of the Royal Navy’s Forward Presence programme to station warships in key regions around the world. All maintenance has been conducted in the Middle East to sustain the frigate’s operations – notably supporting the international Operation Sentinel keeping merchant shipping flowing safely in and out of the Gulf.A four-week fleet time support programme was provided for the Bahrain-based vessel in Duqm. The team faced 250 critical tasks in that period including air weapons handling systems, fire systems and ventilation.”

Work was also carried out in the hangar, flight deck and on the bridge, as well as mess decks.

“Despite the obvious constraints of strict Covid restrictions, the joint venture team delivered HMS Montrose back to sea on time, ensuring maximum benefit in terms of cost and quality,” said Alastair Stangroom, Managing Director for Babcock Oman.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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11 COMMENTS

  1. Duqm is used much more by the USN than the RN. They put a lot of the Fifth Fleet vessels who are working in the Arabian sea alongside there. That said the new jetty at Bahrain which opened recently has seen an upsurge in USN Tico and AB vessels conducting maintenance tasks in the Kingdom instead of transiting out to Duqm.

    Montrose has had one FTSP in Oman during its time in the sun. The previous periods have all been in Bahrain. The majority of assisted maintenance activities are undertaken in Bahrain on RN and RFA vessels. Emergency Drydocking has been undertaken in Bahrain as the Drydocking facilities are far more flexible. Putting an MCMV in a VLCC capable graving Dock is a bit of a waste of resources and also hugely expensive. Graving docks are not cheap to use. Commercial yards with graving docks have them usually on a 10-14 day docking period turnaround, With a ship leaving the the Dock, the next is usually ready to Dock within hours.
    Using the Maritime railway/slipways is far more flexible and cost effective as is using floating docks.

    Having docking capabilities for all RN vessels and RFAs inside the Gulf and outside is a huge bonus. Vessels that need a Drydock or dockyard assistance do not néed to transit the SOH to get that assistance.

    Of course SME contractors for weapon systems etc will always need to be brought in but for most mechanical tasks the local yards are more than capable.Steelwork and weld repairs, Valve overhaul, pipework, engine work, pumps, painting, load testing, chippy work and habitability work etc are all bread and butter commercial tasks.

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