Dave Cullen captured the moment RFA Stirling Castle arrived in Edinburgh.
The drone photographs are pretty good. Give Dave a follow by clicking here. You will not be disappointed.
The Ministry of Defence say that RFA Stirling Castle is the new ‘mothership’ for leading-edge mine warfare technology – technology which will both keep the UK’s waters safe and reduce the risk to sailors.
She arrived on the Clyde in late January to take her place at the forefront of supporting the next generation of the Royal Navy’s mine countermeasures capability.
Her arrival coincided with the departure of HMS Penzance, the last traditional minehunter on the Clyde.
The 6,000-tonne Stirling Castle began life as MV Island Crown, before undergoing conversion in Devonport which will allow her to operate as home to the Royal Navy’s new autonomous mine countermeasures systems.
The vessel was recently working side-by-side with Zulu Squadron of the Mine and Threat Exploitation Group (MTXG), the Royal Navy’s mine countermeasures specialists based at Faslane. According to a release:
“MTXG are trailblazing this advance in technology, employing a full suite of current and future systems: Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs), Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), the joint French-UK Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) system, the Combined Influence Sweep (SWEEP) system, and Medium Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (MAUVs).
Those systems can be operated remotely by MTXG, using a portable command centre on land or from onboard RFA Stirling Castle, or they operate autonomously. Either way, they will be able to search a wider area more quickly than the Sandown-class ships they replace and without the need to expose RN personnel to the dangers of a minefield.”
The image is Copyright Dave Cullen Photography 2024.
Great images! Assuming that 12.8 tonne marking is the weight limit for the helipad, that means it could comfortably acommodate a wildcat or puma – and presumably NMH – as well as potentially even merlin depending on fuel and payload. Obviously these are unlikely to be regular occurrences given the ship’s role but it’s a nice to have and I wonder if there are any plans to trial any RWUAS in the mine countermeasures role?
So are we replacing a dozen + MCMS with one motheership & drones?
Surely we need at least one mothership per region served.
They are hoping for 4 of these, Stirling castle is an active trial ship, she will perform the mission while evaluating the concept. They will hopefully be supplemented by the T32 providing MCM in contested environments. But as the article says it more about operating autonomous vehicles now rather than a ship finding a mine.
Frank she is a trial ship to get all the systems working and then they will decide what they need for the next long term Mother Ship vessels.
The big question will be if she proves to be a success in an operational environment, more of the same OTS or a purpose built Mother ship.
Belgium, Netherlands and probably France are going down the purpose built route with the City Class and they look impressive but at €200 million each and 2,800 tonnes they should do.
IMHO if Stirling Castle can do 90% of the same job at half the price then that’s what I’d go for.
We shall see 🤔
Hope she is able to Close down too Zulu Alpha for any NBCD issue that arises seeing as she was a Civilian vessel when constructed
I don’t think they are planning for this ship to be anything other than a local capacity. In reality your not going to be able do the work to create complete airtight integrity on a complicated second hand merchant vessel..in reality airtight integrity is something you design and build into a ship not add later…if you miss one modification someone did at some point in the ships life your not getting it..actually mapping and managing an older ships air ducting and venting would be difficult and time consuming I would imagine…( my experience is maintaining and sail on boats a lot smaller so I may be wrong).
That’s where problems arise when you buy Secondhand Johnathan I doubt whether she’d be able too raise even an inch of pressure with all hatche’s closed down ,and Vents Crash stopped if needs were ever required
And another thing I wonder what her Magnetic signature rates at ?
Does it matter, after the mushrooms appear ventilation is your last concern. Break out the fishing rods and catch your tea before you fry
You have too place Your Mine counter measure Vessels at the vanguard if your going to operate in contested waters During the Falklands campaign prior too the Sweepers turning up and the landing at San Carlos was immanent Sandy sent a 21,in and out thank god the Argies hadn’t mined it
to be fair the whole concept is that the bit the that goes into harms way is the 11meter SEA class workboat..I believe they have a 400NM range, up to 25knots or a good 2 day loiter at 4 knots. The RN also have the 15m SEA class as well Hebe..which can be autonomous or also crewed to act as a control node for mine warfare operations. The fact is with this the modern version of that I’ll used 21 ( a T31) would have one or two 11mm SEA class mine sweepers and and shipping container control centre in its mission bay…it would drop the sweepers out just over the horizon and let them do the job….I don’t see these big tenders ever really being much more than test bed and training craft….it defeats the object of an air, land and rail mobile capability that can be mated with and plugged into any ship or port in theatre.
Hmmm…has the viability of this operational model been firmly established by operational trials? If not, would it not be prudent to maintain at least a minimal number of the Sandown class until that point? Or is this yet another case of forced disposal due to budget constraints? 🤔
They have done a lot of testing and deployment in the gulf already…it’s a pretty mature system that offers a lot of strategic mobility advantages over traditional mine warfare vessels. The capability is based around a pretty robust set of sea boats and shipping container based control centers that can be deployed on almost any platform that can carry a sea boat and shipping container….you can fly it in, send it by road, deploy it on a ship or in a port…it’s one of those times the new autonomous capability is so much more deployable than the old.
🤔…deployable (and critically, more effective?) 🤞🤞
they seem to be very good…they have a 11meter sea boat that is entirely autonomous and a 15mm sea boat that can be crewed and act as a control nod for 11meter boats and other autonomous systems or act as an autonomous system itself….to be honest its looking like something the RN has got seriously right and completely changes game…as the whole lot can be packed up for road, rail and air transport as needed and then mated to any ship or port with space for the shipping container control centre and an 11 meter work boat or two ( which will be every RN frigate after the T31 and T26s take over from the T23…it would give a who knew domain in the general purpose capability)…it’s been pretty well deployed and tested as well with 3 11meter boats and 1 15meter boat already commissioned and working….the 15meter boat can even do hydrographics as well as mine warfare….
Interesting, at some point, pending RN approval, an export opportunity for UK PLC to selected allies? 🤔
You have to remember the the mine warfare drones are actually decent sized sea boats with reasonable range and endurance…plus the fact they also come with port or land based control centres that are road and air mobile…so for instance managing the gulf you could have an air mobile control centre dropped into a friendly port and let the sea boats get on with it.
As the control centres are also basically shipping containers you can also plop them on any vessel that can take and manage power to a shipping container. So for instance you could have a type 31 with a control centre shipping container and a couple of these…it can drop the sea boats off..and do its patrol frigate thing while the sea boats are off doing mine warfare stuff.
It’s actually remarkably flexible..far quicker and able to react and deploy than just ship based capabilities..but it can also be ship based if you need or want it to be…
This is one case were we really can use autonomous vessels to reduce the number of hulls..divert the crew to other capabilities and yet still have a better capability than we had before…the important thing to make sure it’s not a stealth cut is for the mine warfare vessel crews to go to new ships…so a second batch of T31s….is the one way the RN can have more escorts while keeping manpower costs about the same.
Definitely, but 4 does seem a bit low? 8 Would be more reasonable and needed no? 1 Faslane, 2 Gulf, 1 INDO-PAC, 2 NATO (SNMG’s) – Leaving 2 for maintenance?
Hi oliver remember the MRSS will be designed to be mother ships as well so we will hopefully have 6 of those…add in The fact every escort in the fleet will have mission bay that can carry the mine warfare drones and control centre and its all completely airmobile…..
I guess, I mean I think T26 mission bay will be used primarily, if not constantly for ASW UUV/USV’s and as extra hanger space for more helo’s/UAV’s. T31 is the ship that will most likely be operating in areas where that minehunting capability will be needed (in peacetime at least), so perhaps T31 could carry 2 in its 2 enlarged (11m) boat bays, but i’d prefer to see that used for attack drones or other USV’s such as ones mounted with a Sky Sabre system (You could have: 2 Variants – one with the 8x Lancher mounted and the other with the Giraffe radar and datalink etc) You could then either use 2 Radar ones for early warning/as a picket line, or 2 of the CAMM ones for extended A/D coverage, or a combination of both for an over the horizon Early warning and air defence capability – perhaps travelling with a Commando Insertion Craft (CIC) to shore) – sorry, went off on a bit of a fantasy tangent there lol. Ideally, I would like to see T32 just be a T31 batch 2 with minimal changes (bar Mk41 being fitted at delivery), rather than a glorified Minehunter. I know MRSS should be capable of embarking USV’s for MCM/C2 as one of the Bays typically stationed in the gulf does atm, but for 2 credible LRG’s, thats not really what we want to be using them for. OTS like Sterling Castle is cheap ~ 80 mil a pop? And so if we did buy 8 of them it would only cost 640million – not exactly exorbitant and with low through life costs, it looks to me like a cheap and effective option? I get that they can be shore deployed, but Ship deployed allows them to used further off-shore and it is better to have the capacity to deploy than to not – especially in a larger area like INDO-PAC – where conflict seems to be brewing. I mean just going back to 2020 – 4 years ago, we had 8 Sandowns and 6 Hunts = 14 Minehunters and in 2011, we had 17. While now we have 1! Sandown and 6 Hunts – and that Sandown is currently out of use due to a crash w HMS Chiddingford. That is just ridiculous. Our minehunting capability halved in 4 years and with no replacement on order at the moment, and even if we eventually get round to ordering 4 planned, it is only 4! Ridiculously low. (As mentioned above by me), I reckon we need at a bare minimum: 1 for Faslane, 1 for Gulf, 2 for NATO, which equals 4 – and if we are only buying 4 ships, they aren’t going to be all available at the same time – so even the bare minimum is unachievable with that number! And realistically, I believe we need 1 for Faslane, 2/3 for NATO, 2 for GULF and 1 for INDO-PAC. To think we used to have niche capabilities (and not even very long ago!) such as Minehunting that was seriously valued by partners such as the USN and French Navies who lacked the sophistication and scale of our Minehunting capabilities.
I reckon we need 8-10 for enduring commitment and the sheer size of the UK offshore EEZ.
I still dont understand why she not painted gray
So I showed my girlfriend the new car: two-seater drop top in British racing green, mid engine, zero to sixty in 3.2, top speed 185, leather interior, seven speakers. We went for a ride through the country lanes, sun shining, wind in our hair, and eventually I pull up, lean in and ask her how she liked it. And she replies, couldn’t you get it in grey?
And you only purchased one no back up short term thinking there old boy
Sounds like a nice car but a not so nice girlfriend to me. I reckon you should dump her and get a new model. someone who is going to not criticise your achievements.
Grey
Hmmm…someday I should acquire a copy of the text, ‘Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English.” Would prove useful when characterizing RFA ships as gray or grey. 🤔😁😉
We’ll have to wait to see what colour/color grey/gray if she will be a light/lite colour/color grey/gray I don’t know what you mean about the difference between British English or American English.
it’s all a bit of a Grey/Gray subject.
😆 lol
do the rest of us a favor/favour, do the honorable/honourable thing and drop the puns, both of you.
😂
For a site dealing with such serious matters, there is a significant sense of humour, isn’t there?
Certainly not what I expected when I first came here.
Because your Colouring /Coloring the whole subject Full stop / period
😁
🇬🇧🤝🇺🇲
Isnt it a dual use word, bit like we spell tyre with a y now in the UK simply because Dunlop decided to spell it that way in a 20s advertising campaign. Or why we spell Hertford with an e and the US with an a (despite the former residents founding and naming the latter) because it was spelt with a ‘ǣ’ diphthong so a matter of luck, map/print makers, railway Companies or whoever had influence at the time which became used. Just checked and indeed this latter is indeed the reason it comes from old English grǣg
Either you didn’t realise/realize it was a stab at a humourous/humorous response or you’re trying to impress with your response. 🤔
It’s all your own fault you lot purposely changed all the spellings and removed all the redundant letters that gives the English language it’s “colour”.
You ought to see what they did to our Gravy and Scones…. Criminal !
And their Lame excuse for Cheddar cheese Aaaargh
What, pray tell, is wrong w/ our various biscuits and gravy recipes?
😊👍
Only partly true, as I say above most of it comes from use of the ǣ diphthong and when print arrived and that letter rarely used a choice between e and a had to be made often by luck, toss of a coin, most common usage, whoever had the power to decide it at the time or other coincidental factors. The US simply then concentrated on more how it sounded and introduced some consistency. For instance where I am, the River Lea was originally spelt Lea, Lee and indeed Ley depending on who you were or what the local preference was along the River’s course. Considering Luton is also like Leyton named after it no doubt other derivatives were originally used too.
Is she not due a grey paint job?
I believe that she had only recently been painted so it was, presumably, to save money and she’ll be painted grey when she is next due.
Read elsewhere she is not due to be painted grey for 4yrs yet, at her next refit.
Yes, the reason given was to save money.
Any idea why the ship is not RFA grey?
Yes, It’s because the pictures were taken on a Colour Camera.
wow, thanks for that, who typed the reply you or you’re carer, take your meds. Soon be time for a nap.
For your sake I hope it’s not Frank Bruno. Know what I mean.
no idea what you mean, after you have licked some windows please explain in simple thick persons English,
😂😂😂
classic- made my day! 😁
I think if all the commenters get a brush and grey paint she can be done quickly. 😂😂😂
I don’t care as she’s not an actual warship.
Then it will be a case of Farrow &Ball or Dulux matt or Gloss ? The MOD is all ready struggling with with Beards look how long that took
What colour/color could we paint the RFA ships… rainbow anyone.
Does the crane need to be that big? Is it too big for its role?
Does it have a back door to get boats etc in and out or is it all crane work?
A moon pool would be fun for launching underwater stuff.
Is the heli deck really needed?
How the hell do you get off/on the helipad!? Wouldn’t you fall or bounce off on rolling seas as it looks like a huge trampol!? Lol 😁.
Can they make a light weight fenced and hangar structure for something safer?
Fantastic images!
Was thinking the same thing, on second look there is a stairs on the starboard front of it.
It was not built to do this job, It was bought as a Trials ship to test the capability, the Crane and Heli deck came with it.
If she was a North Sea oil support vessel then she probably has/had a moon pool and Decompression Pots for Sat divers
and when you’re not hunting mines you can go crabfishing in Alaska, hopefully get a reality TV series contract and more money for the RN ☺
Could become an easier route into getting into the media than Big Brother et al, now there’s an advertising campaign opportunity surely, soon have more crews than ships. Mod I will pass on my details for the 10% Agency fee.
Reminds me of Dilligence with that heli pad.
If she works just buy more OTS pronto, lets not waste money here.
A lot of work went into converting the Stenna into the Dil
I don’t really understand the difference between this ship and the RFA proteus to be honest…these two vessels are really nothing more civilian vessels purchased to be drone and systems carriers and tenders..it’s just the RN is going to be focusing on sub sea monitoring drones on one and mine warfare drones on the other and painted that on the side… in reality the true beauty of all the work the RN has done on systems is that the drone capabilities/system are and should be entirely ship/platform agnostic and this completely agnostic approach should be one of the things the RN trials..so I’m not sure why it’s painting an M01 on one of these ships and saying that’s a mine warfare vessel….it’s should be practicing shifting the capabilities between these ships and showing how any old basic mother ship can be turned into whatever you want by changing around the drones and systems, moving a few shipping container control centres and the correct crew..it just seems to me that the RN has gone all out developing these ship agnostic systems…then bottled it a bit and gone…well we put that completely agnostic system on a ship A purchased and designated as a mine warfare ship and these ship agnostic systems on ship B purchased and designated as a subsurface surveillance vessel….
I think the idea is that Stirling Castle is very much MCM specialised, to keep Faslane and approaches clear by carrying the new 11m boats.
Proteus’ job is more to keep an eye on all of the subsea stuff in British waters, mainly using ROVs and UUVs with the moonpool and massive crane to look at the sea bed. For this I think it is more about basing and crew than anything else.
These vessels were cheap for what they can deliver… why we haven’t as a country/ government ordered more I simply don’t understand. The country requires probably 8 or 10 of these vessels with all their autonomous systems and drones to protect our port facilities and off shore critical infrastructure.
You’d think there wasn’t a war occurring just a few hundred miles away against a mad dictator who hates everything our country and the West stands for.
…and many experts telling us we will be in conflict within 5 years. I fear that Putin has put himself in a position now where ever present conflict is the only way forward.
Seen Yachts in Valetta harbour with more electronics than that.
why paint a target on naval ships to the enemy. The others will be looking for it now
Well done!
as a British subject I do not need to know who why when what and finally how big a helicopter it can handle, too much information