HMS Tamar, a Royal Navy Offshore Patrol vessel, has been given a makeover.

The vessel arrived in Falmouth at the start of April for a maintenance period, she’s now back in the water.

The ships Twitter account posted an image of the vessel sporting ‘Dazzle camouflage’.

Dazzle camouflage was a family of ship camouflage used extensively in World War I, and to a lesser extent in World War II and afterwards.

HMS Argus displaying a coat of dazzle camouflage in 1918

Credited to the British marine artist Norman Wilkinson, it consists of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other.

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

30 COMMENTS

  1. Cool, must have unlocked the new skin for the vessel after some levelling up, or maybe they got it in a loot box?

    • is this ever likely to help with any missiles or just with mark 1 eyeball? DO we have any paints that return/absorb different radar signatures to help with missiles?

      • Might help for future missiles that rely on AI / image recognition to get a lock instead of other more traditional jammable homing missile methods
        M@

  2. Is that for real or just CG fake news. Modern RN vessels are surely only painted in shades of Admiralty Grey? Changes the complete look of the ship including breaking up its sleek lines.

  3. I hope I’m not being too pedantic, but it’s more akin to modern Swedish camouflage than dazzle. The latter was much more outlandish and dramatic in breaking up the shape as an attempt to confuse U-Boat captains (as in the picture of HMS Argus) and much brighter colours were originally used.

    The clue’s in the name.

  4. Begs the question …. “is there a direct threat to our OPVs from U-boats now then?”. Does this mean an ASW sonar, anti-sub missile and Wildcat upgrade in the offing for our OPV fleet? Sorry, couldn’t resist, most articles about the OPV fleet on here usually end up with some comment about how they’re under-armed etc …. Would be interested in know what prompted this new colour scheme though, purely commemorative or a more purposeful function? Maybe if the Tamar is going up against RADAR-less Iranian fast patrol boats it’ll serve a genuine purpose?

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