The Royal Navy say that HMS Montrose will conduct regular patrols dealing with drug trafficking in the Indian Ocean.
The Type 23 Frigate will also work supporting counter-terrorism and counter-smuggling operations, and work with Middle East and allied navies to ensure the safety and security of this key region.
“Today marks a significant milestone for us – it is the end of our global voyage but the start of our period stationed in the Middle East,” said Commander Conor O’Neill, Montrose’s Commanding Officer.
“I am immensely proud of all that we have achieved during our voyage to Bahrain, from hosting royalty in Chile, deepening our relationships with allies, sharpening our war-fighting edge in exercises with the Japanese, to our success enforcing sanctions against North Korea. We now have the time to recuperate; making use of the excellent new facilities of the United Kingdom Naval Support Facility before handing over to our opposite numbers.”
The men and women who brought the ship to Bahrain will shortly return to the UK, swapping places with another frigate crew from HMS Monmouth.
I wonder how well these crew swaps work ? They’ve been done on the SSBNs since 1969, of course.
The Bomber crews are knoqn as Port and Starboard. Will this use the same terminology and is there precedent for this in the surface fleet?
The MCM squadron have been swapping crews out for a while. And the SSBN’s are a different animal altogether, I think of them more as one very large crew split in two as it were and not discrete ‘units’…… Not sure I am a fan of the idea for large combat ships. You can bet that the HoDs will have been walked through their part of ship in a most meticulous fashion and will be squared away. But the strength of our system is in FOST. A crew taking their ship from refit through FOST to deployment. We shall see.… Read more »
Thank you Steve.
when the navy is hemorrhaging sailors, i’ll bet this will be an unreasonable burden on families
I believe there is no longer a two-crew rotation since about 2010. With one boat on patrol, two crews are not needed. If I’m wrong , would appreciate correction.
THE OLD LEOPARD FRIGATES DID IT ON ODD OCCASIONS WHEN THE U.K BASED A COUPLE OF THEM THERE IN THE 60’S
About bloody time too, they’ve been on a jolly for months now
I’m with you on that one, I thought I got around when I was in, but that really sounded like the best deployment you could have. It would be very un PC to call it a “World Booze” but it was a heck of a cruise! And now they get to go home before the Gulf really heats up, and someone else has to do the work.
and the families at home? has the M.O.D taken that into consideration? the usual complaint is that there aren’t enough warships in home waters
I never worked in the Souther Ocean but worked most places and there is nowhere else in the world to work than the Gulf in summer. It is no accident that the Type 45 intercooler inadequecies were exposed by conditions there.
Meant to say as bad as the Gulf.
What a trip….
At last! What kept you? ?
Is it penny pinching or intentional to use the cheapest and almost token, option available. The twin 7.62 GPM’s on the foredeck for close in protection would be out gunned by an ISIS speed boat that would have at least a 50 cal/12.7 mm gun and would certainly be no protection against an Iranian swarm speed boat armed with at least a Russian 14.7mm. It is unforgiveable to fail to endanger the crew by equiping the vessel inadequately when the threat is real and substantial.
From how it’s mounted that looks like a minigun. I know the 23 usually has two of them as well as two 30mm and various GPMG. If you were attacking that thing in a speedboat and they knew you were coming I don’t think you’d consider it undergunned.
Alan. Still 7.62. Ok lots of lead in the air. But only half the range of a 50 cal. There is a triple barrel 50 cal, named GAU-19, made be General Dymanic which would be far better.
Layered defence, ignore the big stuff, but 30mm, 50 cal (yes there are usually 6 on board manned by grumpy RM boys) 7.62 GPMG (weapon of the gods) and 7.62 miniguns. Good enough for small boats and angry Iranians. But alas no weapon system or defence is ever 100% secure effective mate.
Why did we drop the 20mm Oerlikon from frigates?
Because you need 2 people to aim and load them. Saves on manpower.
And another downvote for a correct and informed answer? Damn this is getting like the mail online boys.
Like I care about down votes…I’m a Dinosaur not a snowflake…
‘Deepening relations with allies’, ‘war fighting edge’. Please please can we stop with these mod catch phrases!!! I say a tweet the other day talking about ‘music capability’ in reference to an army band! Just let these officers speak what’s on their mind within reason and stop telling them to learn off these lines in a mirror! They need to seem like people, not robots!
Mate it goes all the way up to May and Corbyn we are doomed on that front.
It’s a skill you need when you work in a field where you have to balance the risk of a worse case that your average person would be up in arms about against what your average person is willing to pay for. You would not believe the number of ways I can say “ the likelyhood is we are going to kill people, but to solve it we we need to do x and potentially harm group y” in a report, but ensuring only the people Im aiming it at pick up on it and really get what I’m saying……that’s… Read more »
its been the way for too long, the public wants truth, not pre prepared mush
Trouble is Andy, they got told the true quite a lot, but in my experience don’t really want to hear anything that does not agree with their world view. I done a far bit of public engagement and never has a truth gone down well. People want to be told only what they want to here…the true is very rarely that.
ESPECIALLY IN MATTERS OF DEFENSE
Anything and everything that’s either expensive, complex or both, to be honest. Some of the most maddening times are when the truth you speak will actually both save lives and money, but the public will not have it because to their world view, or limited understand of the subject your lying.The classic example I’ve always had is closing the small cottage hospital or small ED, which all evidence says is to small for staff to get the practice and exposure they need to be safe…….will people actually believe it’s my job (and passion, build up over decades Working in the… Read more »
media sound bites are just the bottom of the barrel in m.o.d media blurb
ITS ALL WRITTEN BY PREPAID MEDIA DRONES.
Out of interest, is there a list of all the port calls they made along the way? It appears the crew had a great deployment in terms of locations visited!
HMS Montrose and Monmouth swaps their crew. ________1: But, Montrose is with new SAM and CMS, but Monmouth is still with old SAM and CMS. How can they train themselves? Or, after ship swapping, training periods starts in the Persian Gulf? FOST will go their to do their “Thursday war”? Very interested in the plan/idea of training the crew. ______2: Also, as Montrose’s crew was “on deployment” for very long, the first thing to do for them is to take a rest with their families, and then on-land training/education (for promotion). Only after that, Monmouth will go out to sea.… Read more »
I am pretty sure that Monmouth is due to go into the Sheds for a refit. The crew training will be done on the Shore simulators and other units in Guz and Pompie..
Hopefully, she will be safe from defence cuts out there? Whatever the outcome of Brexit, apart from remaining, I fear there will be further cuts to ensure the NHS is protected. A period of post-Brexit adjustment; will prove expensive for many government departments, and as we all know a favorite Treasury target is our armed forces.
the crew will,like hms ark royal lern on their way home that the ship will be decommissioned on their arrival at portsmouth. i’d rather slam my nuts in the fridge door than work for the M.O.D!
NOTHING IS SAFE FROM DEFENSE CUTTING.
Couple of things. 1. She has 50 calls fitted as well as mini guns, gpmgs and 30 m 2. She is about to start a maintenance period prior to the crew swap which happens in around 5 weeks time. When the crews swap there will be lots of training teams and assessment teams out from the UK to assist….including FOST. This is very much a learning experience for the RN on a ship of this size. Let’s see how they get on. It’s been done on the Mcmvs with success so it’s not a completly alien or untried. Lastly A… Read more »
Why a few downvotesfor Gunbuster? What has he said that requires downvotes. It would seem subject matter knowledge and experience seems to maybe annoy a few people on here. Crazy!
I have given up trying to understand why reasonable submissions to the net get down voted.
The only thing I will say about this experiment is that when the USN tried it, following USCG practices, it didn’t work. A frigate is an offensive platform operated at a high tempo, a MCM (for the most part) is reactive defensive platform. And to be honest I am not sure a 4000 ton plus ASW frigate probably isn’t the best fit for the Gulf, but it is all we have.
I THINK WE’RE STARTING TO ATTRACT A FEW TROLLS ON HERE, MORE BOTHERING,A FEW SLY DIGS ND CONDESCENDING REMARKS ARE NOT WHAT WE ARE USED TO ON THIS SITE. MAYBE PEOPLE SHOULD NEED TO REGISTER TO WRITE AND/OR POST ON HERE?
I was on board it today and will be for the next month!
Now that a Royal Navy frigate has arrived in the Gulf to provide an ongoing presence, maybe its time for the Royal Australian Navy to wind back our virtually continuous frigate deployment to the Gulf since 1990.
Time for the RAN to focus on priorities closer to home.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/bring-Australias-navy-home-from-the-middle-east
But welcome to the party.
The Aussies have been doing a brilliant maritime security job mostly outside the Gulf area in the Indian Ocean. The drugs intercepts by Arrunta, Warramunga and now Ballerat over the last few years have been very significant.
prioritise closer to home…maybe…but the current shipbuilding programme for the RAN indicates it wants to remain a regional player and so it should. Anyway i would miss the Aussies when they are alongside they play and party hard!
Depends how you define Australia’s ‘region’. The future for Australia’s strategic security rests with the so-called Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad (India, Australia, USA and Japan). Given the UK strategic thinking is dominated by NATO it is something that has gone under the radar there (pardon the pun). While the US ‘pivot to Asia’ gained wide publicity and became a media catch phrase, the term has now been replaced in US foreign policy messaging by the Quad’s adoption of the Australian-coined term Indo-Pacific. It far better describes Australia’s strategic challenge straddling both oceans and China’s ambition with increasing activity to… Read more »
The RAN seem to have more latitude for ‘robustness’ in their ROE than the RN.
Oscar Zulu, the RN has had a continuous frigate and/or destroyer presence there for ever and a day (you seem to have misinterpreted this as a new commitment). However, until now ships have rotated into and out of theatre every 6-9 months. Now the ship is staying (for 3 years) and the crews are being rotated. Hopefully the RN will, in due course, also be able to something similar in the RAN’s backyard alongside the RAN.
Better to rot away in the sun than rot away in Devonport i suppose.
Actually it pished down yesterday. Thunderstorms and torrential rain…lots of surface flooding on the roads. So it was a lot like Guz.
Its sunny today and a nice 27 degs!
It’s bloody freezing and windy in Devonport bloody typical and i have a week off from working on the junk known as the HMS Any Old Iron Duke.
I remember reading Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly’s paper on using ‘regiments’ to man ships and not tie crews to ships and replace trickle drafting. He sort of persuaded himself that it wouldn’t work.