Crew members aboard HMS Chiddingfold have been honing their skills with heavy machine guns while on duty in the Arabian Gulf.
This training is a critical part of maintaining the ship’s readiness to defend against potential threats in the region.
Maintaining all the skills we need to operate our Heavy Machine Guns 💪 in the Arabian Gulf 🌊
This practice is essential to protect us all from potential threats #OpKipion pic.twitter.com/o7FUvvssFS
— HMS Chiddingfold (@HMSChiddingfold) August 6, 2024
Operating in challenging environments like the Arabian Gulf requires continuous practice and preparation.
The crew’s commitment to staying sharp ensures that HMS Chiddingfold remains fully capable of protecting its personnel and fulfilling its mission under Operation Kipion.
Operation Kipion represents the United Kingdom’s long-standing air and maritime presence in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Its aim is to promote peace and stability in the region and ensure the safe flow of oil and trade.
Until the early 2020s, this operation included a permanent presence of four minesweepers as part of the Mine Countermeasures element (9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron).
The 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron’s configuration is expected to change with the gradual withdrawal of the Sandown-class minehunters from the Royal Navy and their planned replacement with autonomous minehunting systems.
The Chid use too have 2x20mm Gamb 01s manned by the CDs 2x 7.62mm GPMGs and the main single 30mm so the Gamb01s have been replaced with 2x •50 cals any reason why?
I think the navy are standardising on the 50cal. Didn’t the batch 2 Rivers have their 7.62 mini guns replaced by 50cals? Maybe the plan is to replace 20mm cannons with 50cal too. Save money.
Probably easier too strip and clean and also H and S can’t have ratings putting their backs out lifting a box of 20mm HEI or HEIT •50 cal 100 linked boxes alot lighter
Wimps!
2 man lift for a front mag box of 20mm.
Could it be that the 0.5 cal stops small boats at longer ranges, quicker & better than 7.62mm? Even at massive rpm the minigun produces. Simpler to maintain too?
50 cal is not simple to strip and maintain. It’s a comparable pain in the butt to the minigun.
20mm was just a big GPMG …both of which were easy to strip and maintain.
50 cal reaches out further and has a flatter trajectory for the bullet. Better choice of ammo as well compared to the minigun.
Thanks for the correction GB.
Navylookout May 23 has an interesting article. Hitting power, range, choice of ammo and the option of a gyroscopically stabilised mount seem to be the advantages.
OK, time for an ignorant question: Which bogeys could fully trained crew(s), under optimum conditions, realistically defend against as a last line of defence? Fast boat swarms? Drones? Helicopters making close passes? Certainly not CMs (unless one believes in golden BBs)? How badly do successful engagement rates deteriorate under sub-optimum conditions (e.g. weather, lighting, etc.)? Bottom line: Shouldn’t all weapons have radar and/or EO aiming capability? Sorry, probably recognize an AF bias…🤔
All crew served weapons have night sights and laser illuminators for nighttime engagements.
Weapon direction is from the radar with vocal indication of target range and bearing. Once acquired you blatt away unless you shift target as instructed.
You can shoot at least 3 targets ( 30mm, 50cal and GPMG plus 5.56 rifles) but are limited by max effective range of each type of gun and ammunition in use.
As ever with ships they will also be manoeuvring at max chat to open weapon arcs and to limit attack vectors.
🤔👍
GAM Bo1 was a Gulf War 1 fit .I fitted some of them at the time over a very busy week prior to them deploying there. They also got Barricade chaff launchers! They haven’t had GAM Bo1 for pushing 20 years.
They got M134 Mini Guns fitted. Those have also now gone and the 50 cals are fitted. They still have the GPMGs and the 30mm.
The Chid had them fitted in 88 for deployment to the Gulf during Iran/ Iraq tankèr wars for defence against Boghammers DF launcher ,Matilda and Barricade also fitted . Along with stereo speakers fitted in the deckhead of the Jnr rates mess square got tired and bored of them falling off the shelf wonder if still fitted ?
I’m sorry, I’m a great fan of UKDJ, I really am, but is it news when a minor RN vessel has fired it’s .50 cal?
As a % of Vessels though, It’s quite a significant part. Sadly.
A lot of these articles appear, from Carriers firing their MGs to MCMV. I often wonder if they are trigger articles like Ajax ones are.
Someone, somewhere will comment on the lack of NSM, VLS and CIWS.
Almost like we are “lab rats” and the UKDJ are pissing themselves laughing as the same old moans surface.
A theory only, and not questioning UKDJ at all.
Well I for one think it’s utterly shameful our minehunters aren’t equipped with Trident anti-ship missiles and railgun point defence batteries.
On Sandowns they exchanged the CV8 diesel drive on the gensets for the Volvo engine drive onto the gensets( I did 2 of these fits out here) , but they kept the original genset electrical end and didn’t upgrade it to the required 20Gw power output. By doing that they also had to cancel the free electron laser, rail gun and microwave weapon upgrade on Sandowns. That had a knock on into Hunts program where similar upgrades where cancelled due to the small numbers needed making the free electron laser upgrade uneconomical.
😁😏😏
That was suggested, and mulled over whilst enjoying brandy and cigars ,but was forgotten about as we were extremely drunk. So they’ve ended up with 2x •50 cals instead
Could also think that about the Scottish articles about shipbuilding, or our aircraft over the Black Sea and dare I even mention special ops over the Arctic on Dec 24th !!!😁
A UKDJ tradition that must always be maintained. And the April Fools articles.
Squeak!
🐭🐀
🤣
It’s always good news when you get to go bang bang on a belt fed .50………..
Oh yes!
Must be as the Aimer of the .50 is not a Gunner ,but a Mine warfare specialist, Must be a Royal Navy first .Has too be given a press announcement
Pfffffft .50 gets fired at killer grape !
I’m not saying it wouldn’t hurt but, seriously, It’s not exactly a Nelson Broadside is it ?
And no, I’m not calling for Nelson class ships here but flipping heckers, come on chaps . 😂
We need another Admiral class.
T83?
You’d be able to chuck in all of the WW2 and cold war ones as well, so would be scope for new names and trimming the admirals whose eponymous ships exploded or did badly (e.g. Hood)
I would like to see Leander class names.
Had a look at the list.
A lot of the names like Phoebe and Hermione evoke Napoleonic sailing frigates rather than more aggressive and important destroyers as the T83 will be (notwithstanding the modern lack of names from classical mythology as well)
More suited to OPVs, rather than what are effectively capital ships.
I’m always surprised that the name Hood never gets a look in. There were 3 called after him , including the last one, She was the pride of the RN for 20 years yet we seem to never consider the name anymore.
I think we can write off Hood as a ship name in future.
It was such a public humiliation for the RN and still widely known.
An I class might be interesting and follow the letter naming pattern of the T45s.
Indefatigable, Invincible, Illustrious and so forth.
Plenty of Battle cruisers (some of which blew up) and WW2 Aircraft carriers to mine from there.
Too many good names, too few new ships and subs. Given that some of these few have to be named after cities or counties for good PR reasons, that doesn’t leave much room. The naming committee further constrains itself by sometimes limiting a class to a common initial. Presumably there is high chance that the names of the SSN-AUKUS class will begin with a ‘B’, so maybe Barham, Brilliant, Boadicea, Battleaxe … no room for Hood or Nelson or Rodney
You have to laugh when you see PR releases such as this. It’s a machinegun – not even a 20, 30 or 40 mm cannon! The equivalent back in the 1930’s was Pathe Newsreels showing battleships of the Home or Mediterranean Fleets impressively firing 15 inch broadsides whilst on exercise. And I have a DVD of Richard Baker presenting episodes of Scran Bag in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the footage is stuffed with frigates, destroyers and even cruisers blazing away with multiple 4.5 inch and 6 inch guns, as well as numerous Seaslug missile launches – which always… Read more »
Ha. Most of the Daily Express readers would have been told that this was a Battleship Broadside !
Hunt Class crew 45…..Kongsberg Vanguard crew….<45?
Vanguard not built to Milspec built to Civilian Shipbuilding rules so cheaper to build and crew.
45 Crew and then add in the extras who would drop in and out depending on the containerised fit.
Rules point duly noted, but not a stopper? BAE based the batch 2 River on the Amazonas. Interesting to see the Hunts ‘in the news’ performing their secondary role as OPV; and armed in identical fashion to the Rivers.
MCMV conduct more MSP jobs than they do MCM jobs. They are an expensive way of sailing around and showing the flag