Two of the Royal Navy’s smallest vessels, HMS Exploit and HMS Blazer, are set to participate in the annual NATO exercise, Sandy Coast, off the Belgian coast.
This exercise, say the Royal Navy here, is designed to test the alliance’s ability to protect key shipping lanes and vital underwater infrastructure in the North Sea.
Taking place from September 2 to September 20, this year’s exercise focuses on coastal security and the management of underwater devices and explosives in shallow waters near the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
The North Sea is one of the busiest maritime areas in Europe, featuring a mix of commercial traffic and critical undersea infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines, as well as communications cables.
In this year’s exercise, the Royal Navy vessels will assume the role of “bad guys,” attempting to disrupt the operations of NATO’s Mine Countermeasures Group 1, which is led by Germany and includes participants from Lithuania and Canada. This approach allows for a realistic simulation of the challenges that allied forces may face in maintaining security in the region, say the Royal Navy.
Lieutenant Cameron Osborn, the Commanding Officer of HMS Exploit, expressed the significance of the exercise, stating, “This is an exciting opportunity for Exploit and Blazer to take part in Belgium’s largest maritime exercise – as well as a notable step forward for the Coastal Forces Squadron in deploying autonomous minehunting equipment with specialists from the Mine Threat Exploitation Group embarked.”
The exercise is also a continuation of the Royal Navy’s shift towards incorporating technology in mine warfare, moving away from traditional methods. Earlier this year, the P2000 class vessels participated in exercises in the Baltic and Arctic, where they worked alongside NATO allies and Fleet Air Arm’s Wildcat helicopters to develop tactics for countering fast attack craft.
Following the completion of Sandy Coast, HMS Exploit and HMS Blazer will return to the UK and represent the Royal Navy at the Southampton Boat Show.
I am finding this P2000 resurgence very interesting. The RN does definitely need to look as dealing with small craft. But I wonder if the RN was better equipped in terms of major surface combatants and submarines plus supporting systems would this work with P2000 be being undertaken? I wonder if we will see them replaced with two classes. or a single class that can be upgunned? Probably be the latter even if not the best solution.
With its roles are they looking at options of putting a RWS (Thales/Kraken/Aselan) on these P2000s? Even with Martlet? I’ve seen them with the 20mm but isn’t this getting taken out of service but still on the B1 Rivers?
The 20mm is supposed to still be in service on some RFA vessels as well, most notably RFA Argus who currently is in East Asia and has both of hers missing despite having had a weapons upgrade. As far as I can tell just the B1 Rivers have them remaining. The P2000s were designed to take the GAM BO1 mounting and have a ‘gunroom’ for 20mm ammunition on board. None have ever been fitted with them and all of the ‘gunrooms’ have been used for additional bunks or storage space. The vessels do occasionally get sighted with a large ballistic… Read more »
We should be planning to replace the P2000 boats within 10 years with something slightly beefier. The Nordics have this sorted and we should do likewise maybe something like HMS Magpie or The Cutlass Class but for North Sea work I think 20m is too small for anything more than ‘Police’ work. I’d go to 30m when with a stern ramp they could maybe on occasion carry the small unmanned mine hunters which probably weigh in at 3000 kg or easily carry other RIB sea boats. I’d be interested to know what the Navy thinks of using these beyond Training… Read more »