The Royal Navy has participated in Norway’s annual maritime exercise in order to train future submarine commanders and “enhance the defence of NATO’s northern flank”.
The exercise included the participation of the attack submarine HMS Artful and frigate HMS Northumberland, as well as a majority of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Danish warships, F-35 stealth fighters, and long-range maritime patrol aircraft.
The Royal Navy say here that HMS Artful served as a training platform for prospective submarine Commanding Officers during the live-action phase of the prestigious Submarine Command Course, also known as Perisher. This course assesses an individual’s suitability for command of a submarine.
The exercise provided ample opportunities for Perisher students to engage in simulated engagements and practice tracking and evading opponents, led by the capabilities of HMS Northumberland, which is designed and built to detect and track enemy submarines.
The harsh and challenging conditions of the Norwegian Sea and Arctic, including near-freezing temperatures and complex terrain in the form of inlets and fjords, added an additional level of realism to the training, the Royal Navy added.
“Flotex provided a warfare scenario that was complex enough to meet my training aims in an area of ever-changing conditions which confused picture compilation, with fjords which made for demanding dived navigation, all of which combined to challenge my students to their limit,” said Commander ‘Mac’ McAllister, the Perisher course’s lead instructor – known as ‘teacher’.
“I am extremely grateful to the Norwegian Navy for allowing us to participate in their exercise, and for all the ships, aircraft and submarines we worked with.”
The new Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance Ship purchased for £70m from P&O subsidary Topaz Marine. 6,000 tonnes and built in 2019 for work in the offshore oil industry she will be refitted in Merseyside and renamed RFA Proteus.
https://www.navylookout.com/uk-purchases-commercial-vessel-for-conversion-to-ocean-surveillance-ship/
Ooo good spot. Nice.
And finally a replacement for HMS Challenger.
A MCM Mother vessel purchased too. Good.
Yeh, more good news for the RN, just hope they sort out the issues with the T32 program. I think Boris has potentially built in a serious weakness into the program by giving it a new name. Should have called it Batch 2 T31…
These two ships represent a big step forward for the RN autonomous vehicle capability. Neatly building on the current MCM force’s use of ROV’s over the years. Whilst I agree with the Navy Lookout comment about the need to train on new kit I would suggest that the basic capability isn’t completely new so RN will have a pretty good idea on the issues involved.
I do like this kind of evolutionary development and innovation. I just hope that the specialist ship they design doesn’t ignore everything that is embodied in the vessels they have just bought. For gods sake leave the gold plating alone..!
Cheers CR
Why not just get another RRS Sir David Attenborough ? Assume the specs for that meet the requirement?
Agree on a T31B2.
Striking looking ships. Is there any room anywhere for basic armaments? Wouldn’t want to land in a strong wind and get blown off the helipad so high up! Lol. 😆
They’ll put mounts for GPMGs on which is standard.
Would have to be on top of the bridge, too many blind spots everywhere else. But then you might find trouble with the radars etc.
There’s some space under said helipad, we put an open air gym under there on one project I worked on- but no good for air defence weapons either!
Never had to fly off the helipad, but did plenty onto oil platforms that were higher. Mind you, platforms don’t pitch and roll..!
put some upward opening hinged panels in helipad, Sea Ceptor is cold launch so could be launched through it 🙂
😁😁
Here we go….don’t forget the ASMs and Phalanx!
now now DM you know we are developing a PODs with 16” cannon off of the USS New Jersey which will fit on the back deck also on the B2’s/t-31&32 🤪
😜
Sounds a bit Soviet to me!
😂While we’re at it we could probably put a triple launcher for LMM on that crane boom!
You were worried about the height of the helipad off the sea, now you want to land your helo on 12 rocket motors and blast frag warheads! I like the way you think, but forgive me if I don’t sit next to you on a plane…😋
😄😄
😂
Nice, good stable design, at that age should have decent crew accommodation too. Important for an asset that will likely be at sea for a lot of the time.
I think a few people and I, suspected that Cammell Laird would get the job for this ship refit. Some good news.
That’s a big big crane on the back.
Yeah, I believe when its on its cradle it can be used for lowering things through the moon pool but you can also swivel it over the side of the ship. It was recently being used for installing offshore wind turbines in Korea. Having a ship like this at the time would have meant recovering the F-35 from the floor of the Med could have been done inhouse.
I recall this was asked here before, and I’ve forgotten the answer given.
But what is the arrow on the starboard side of the Astute indicating??
@Deep?
It means ‘oily spot here’…
Must be becoming a problem putting commanders through Perisher with so few boats available. How do you keep up people’s interest in becoming a boat commander?