Drone footage shows HMS Penzance as she basks in the Glasgow sun.

The minehunter is currently berthed at the King George V docks in Glasgow.

HMS Penzance is a Sandown-class minehunter and is named after the seaside town of Penzance in Cornwall. In 2020 Penzance deployed long-term to the Persian Gulf, operating as part of 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron from HMS Jufair in Bahrain.

The vessel returned to UK waters from the Persian Gulf in the summer of 2022.

HMS Penzance’s role

As one of the Royal Navy’s minehunter vessels, HMS Penzance’s primary role is to neutralise underwater threats. Like all Sandown-class vessels, she is most effective in deeper waters, so she can often be found surveying shipping routes or clearing the way for military operations.

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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18 COMMENTS

    • Can’t the crew invite Ms Nicola Sturgean for a call round ,then sail South with her into English waters Scotland would be forever in our Debt for ridden them of her (most probably) Sean

  2. Interesting.

    “An official rendering shown for the first time at an event on 21 February depicts a Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat ‘loyal wingman’ landing aboard a UK Royal Navy (RN) Queen Elizabeth (QE)-class aircraft carrier.

    Revealed by an official who was presenting under the Chatham House Rule, the computer-generated image shows the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being recovered by means of an arrester hook, and gear not currently fitted to the carrier.

    While Boeing confirmed to Janes that the image is official, it declined to release a high-resolution version of it.”

    https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BDA_LW_Woomera_031822_hires.jpg

  3. On subject I think it is often overlooked that manned MCM’s have a valuable secondary role to play in the RN that can never be replaced by the introduction of their unmanned counterparts. The Sandowns are great little assets and it would be a mistake to retire ships that still have plenty of life left in them.
    ps being an older white man can be fun😆

    • Agreed. At the least, the RN has been thoughtful re distribution of Sandown class, thus far: three to Estonia, two to Romania, two to Ukraine (future). Presume there will be up to a further five available for disposition by 2025 (although one is already laid up and one is a training vessel). Hope RN has a viable plan for introduction and support of autonomous systems 🤞, otherwise, this will become a significant loss of a world-class capability. 🤔😳

    • The unmanned system is in Bahrain now for warm weather trials which will be conducted on Cardigan Bay. The boat and the support containers for the system are onboard already. It took less than a day to crane it onboard.

      As for secondary roles yes they do Maritime Security Patrols but thats a secondary nice to have. They are expensive in crew and in equipment to run. They are not that fast and a River OPV is a better option for that kind of work. Go the whole 9 yards and use drones for MSP. USN TF59 and its embedded RN cohort are doing a lot of work also in Bahrain on drone boat employment tactics.

      • Hi Gunbuster-thanks for update! Hope you are well. Cheers from ‘has been hot’ Durban and KZN late 30’s early 40’s -not like the ME but we get very high humidity which makes it feel worse.😎

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