British Destroyer HMS Duncan has sailed through the Bosphorus Straight and into the Black Sea, a move described by Russian media recently as ‘clear provocation’.
HMS Duncan is leading Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 ‘(SNMG2), what NATO call an ‘Immediate Reaction Force’. The destroyer left Portsmouth Naval Base in early January resume the role after a three-month stint in charge last year.
SNMG2 is a ‘multinational, integrated maritime force’ – made up of vessels from various allied nations, training and operating together as a single team – that is permanently available to NATO to perform a wide range of tasks, from participating in exercises to crisis response and real world operational missions.
Last year, HMS Duncan visited the Ukrainian port of Odessa in the first visit by a Royal Navy ship in eight years.
Second @RoyalNavy ship enters #BlackSea: Type45 Daring class destroyer & Flagship to @NATO @SNMG_2 , @HMSDuncan D37 transited BlackSea-bound Bosphorus & entered BlackSea 07:15GMT pic.twitter.com/MQZIUAsreY
— Yörük Işık (@YorukIsik) January 31, 2018
The Type 45 destroyer is the most advanced air-defence vessel in the world. So powerful is the vessels SAMPSON radar, from its position in Dublin Port it could monitor the air traffic over the entire island of Ireland. The US Naval War College has suggested that the SAMPSON radar is capable of tracking 1,000 objects the size of a cricket ball travelling at three times the speed of sound
The UK’s National Audit Office reported that, during an “intensive attack”, a single Type 45 could simultaneously track, engage and destroy more targets than five Type 42 destroyers operating together.
Interesting the context of the head of Marcom’s recent talk to the Atlantic Council – expect more visits to the Black Sea by “fully tooled up, fully bombed up Type 45 Destroyer[s]”, as part of a policy to patrol in what otherwise might be, or previously were, “grey” or “no-go” areas for NATO.
Strange though that mine sweepers headed by HMS Enterprise entered the Black Sea a few days before SNMG 2 as, in the talk, Marcom stressed that high end vessels would lead in these areas to prevent the creation of any hostages to fortune.
If Russia is able to navigate through the English Channel, we can do whatever we want in the black sea. I laugh at the hypocrisy of Russian trolls who mock those who even report on Russian ships near UK waters yet scream bloody murder when a Royal Navy ship in international waters in the black sea, patrolling it waters for NATO ally Turkey or visiting the several countries that share it’s coast.
And yet again I can’t state enough how much I love the look of the type 45. Whilst capability and firepower are obviously not dependent on looks, for me it’s the first proper mean and sexy looking ship weve had since the last battleships were retired.
A very fine looking ship; lovely clean lines …….
I was at the launch in Glasgow, so I always look out for the Duncan!
Very impressive ship! Just wish we had more… and a Mk41 VLS on each one too!
Probably they might be perturbed by her being so ugly.