HMS Dauntless recently participated in a joint exercise with the United States Coast Guard as part of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST).

The exercise involved conducting boarding operations on “suspicious vessels” using a combination of the Wildcat helicopter and seaboats from HMS Dauntless.

The United States Coast Guard and Royal Navy personnel worked together to identify suspicious vessels and carry out boarding operations. The exercise also provided an opportunity for the two forces to share best practices and improve coordination.

The Wildcat helicopter, which was developed by Leonardo Helicopters, is a state-of-the-art aircraft capable of carrying out a wide range of naval operations. It is equipped with advanced sensors making it an ideal asset for maritime security operations.

The seaboats, on the other hand, are fast and highly manoeuvrable boats that can be launched quickly from Type 45 Destroyer HMS Dauntless.

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

7 COMMENTS

  1. Can someone more knowledgable than me explain the process of FOST? Is it training/testing the vessel, the sailors or both?

    Is it pass/fail?

    • It’s all of the above. They test the ship and it’s crew both at sea and in harbour in a variety of tasks. If the ship passes it begins operations. If it fails then it continues more intensive training. Nobody wants that, its bloody hard work.

      • Shippers, I posted last night but it hasn’t appeared!

        To paraphrase my post…
        You test the vessel and it’s systems. You test the individual crew members, crew teams and all of the crew and it’s teams working together.
        From simple serials like Man overboard, fire exercises etc through to the ultimate test of multidomain warfighting with damage control overlaid, system losses, system repairs, and having to operate and fight in secondary mode or worse.

        One of the hardest jobs and most stressful job I have ever done was WE Section Base WO. Coordinating reports on system losses, prioritising repairs against the commands requirements, weapon system of systems knowledge down to fuse boards and panels, secondary modes of operation, restrictions on performance of systems, all through dodgy comms, in the dark whilst trying not to punch someone flat out because a Fostie told them to act like a C**t and wind me up… (We tywrapped them up in a cabin in then end and left them. Also because of prior experience doing unexploded ordinance advice to command and getting roped in to prepping a torpedo because they killed off the air weapons maintainer!

        Mess it up and you go round again and certain HODs get to reconsider their career paths over a cup of coffee negative coffee.

        Funnily enough I was speaking to a USN Lt on a MCMV I am working on out here on Saturday about FOST. He had been through as part of a NATO command team. He was in awe of what it could do to a ship and crew to work them and stress them and the USN had nothing comparable to It.

  2. Are any of the T45s getting NSM this year – or will it be 3 x T23s only? We already know HMS Somerset is getting it as work has started on her.

    Just curious.

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