The Royal Navy has taken delivery of the sixth and final vessel in a £51 million project to improve support for Royal Navy divers.
The 15m Vahana boats, which replace outdated vessels, are equipped with advanced navigation equipment and provide improved speed and operational range, all crucial to diving operations.
The boats have been delivered over a five-year period, and two of the vessels are based at the Defence Dive School in Portsmouth, while the others are operated by the Fleet Diving Units in Portsmouth, Plymouth, Scotland, and one is currently deployed in Gibraltar.
The new boats enhance the Royal Navy’s ability to conduct diving operations, ensuring the safety and efficiency of these important missions.
Commander Sean Heaton, commanding officer of the Diving and Threat Exploitation Group, said:
“These boats are replacing models we have had since the 1990s and will be used by the unit across the UK. It’s a welcome sight to see the sixth and final one handed over to us as part of this multi-million pound project.”
You can read more here.
“”The Royal Navy has taken delivery of the sixth and final vessel in a £51 million project to improve support for Royal Navy divers.”” It would help if it was mentioned that the £51 million cost isn’t for 6 dive boats but rather for the entire Vahana project which is a replacement programme for the Royal Navy (RN) small boat flotilla with 38 SEA Class workboats based around a common base platform with interchangeable capability modules, allowing the boats to be operated in a number of different operational roles. The RN will receive thirteen workboats for training, logistics support and… Read more »
A very comprehensive program, indeed.
It seems QE uses sea boats of a different, earlier design, probably before project Vahana was initiated. These are the ALN-139 from Alnmaritech.
More details here:
https://www.navylookout.com/passenger-transfer-boats-for-hms-prince-of-wales-to-be-delivered-this-year/
Why don’t you do a write up and offer it to George?
You clearly have a good factual handle on this?
A lot of focus on here on big Grey War Canoes and things that go bang but this stuff is equally important as an enabler.
Thanks Farouk
Answered my question!
Ta
Were there options for more vessels? It would be good to see the RNs NavyX operating the Atlas Arcims ASW pod to determine whether it would be a cost effective way to bolster coastal waters submarine defence.
Presumably Bay class and/or some future acquisition will serve as the support vessels for these diving support boats, when deployed outside UK territorial zone? Could remaining Sandown/Hunt classes possibly fulfill that role?
I think I did track them all down, will have to check.
I wonder if the RN would be interested in using local (to portsmouth) civilian skippers for exercising and sea trials?
Once again a programme that has been successful in delivering what is needed by the Fleet. Other services take note please. For the Army, so many complain about it’s reducing size, but we forget the reserves that bolster its numbers and that could and should be expanded to when needed give us a far larger Army (double sized to 150 – 200K). They can be trained on all the kit and maintained but a a fraction of the cost of keeping a large standing Army. Lots of good lads and lasses but the leaders need some education and try and… Read more »
Good points those. I left the “Terriers” along with six others in my platoon when they introduced the silly 5.56 popgun. Although a bit older now, three of us would re-join if we can have our L1A1’s back. On a serious note, we should have a standing militia like The National Guard. A serious pool of reserves would really beef up the regulars.
I agree, in this day and age, we shouldn’t always call on the military to bail out national services when they’re a major dilemma or there’s a strike. Today’s military especially the Navy and Airforce have had their numbers cut to the bone and don’t have the flexibility in numbers like they did 10 years ago. Having a National Guard would help.
UK Army Reserve (successor to Territorial Army)? Wiki states a goal of 30,000 trained and equipped personnel. No idea whether it reflects reality. 🤔
“Equipped”
Hmmmm…!
They made the excuse of expanding the reserves when they did the 2010 cuts.
Understand, quite unfortunate, given current current geo-political circumstances.
Still find it crazy that the USAR and ARNG are larger than the regular army.
Willing to hazard a guess that payroll cost is a factor.
After regulars and my reserve service ending I joined the old Territorial Army ( free shooting and weekends away from the family ) At the time, with the regular army we could field over 170,000 men in case of mobilisation. The RAF and RN also had good pools of reserves to call on. Now? Frankly it appals me. The “leadership” is obsessed with wokery and inclusion. I have no problem with women being in the front line. I have a problem when good, white male recruits are excluded because of “quota”. As happened recently in the RAF causing a senior… Read more »
Literally had no idea you were facing this issue in the UK. Thought this was solely a US phenomenon. 😱
No, it has taken firm root here, egged on by the rich “green” liberal wokeraty. Sadly the Chiefs of Staff have been, since Tony Blairs time, a political not military appointment. They are chosen because they say the right things. The rank and file are generally good, sound people. It is above a certain level that the idiocy starts.
Off- Topic but it sounds promising. UK and France to agree to develop precision strike weapons today “Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron are expected to sign off on the UK and France collaborating to develop precision strike weapons to combat Russian aggression later today. As well as the deal on weapons, the two leaders are also set to agree on working more closely on training Ukrainian marines and supplying weapons to Kyiv during a UK-France summit in Paris. Mr Sunak said the West faced “unprecedented threats” and that he and his French counterpart wanted to “fortify” NATO so the… Read more »
Well talk is cheap, its when we see the services getting the right kit on time and budget is what we want to see. The RN & RAF both need additional funding to actually do the job they are asked of. Better recruitment system too so to encourage the youth that there is a real career there for them that rewards their efforts.
Still support of an expansion of all reserves, educate the general public that its everyone’s responsibility to uphold the freedoms we all share not a few.
A lad in our village wanted to join REME. He finally enlisted last November. It took Capita over fourteen months to process his application. What we see from politicians and service chiefs is talk. They cannot walk the walk.
Co-ordinated deployments of carriers to the ‘Indo-Pacific’, joint development of , I assume, hypersonic strike missiles, training and equipping Ukrainian forces to work with UK and French. All of this makes sense. The US and Australia will approve. What’s the betting that Macron will agree to set up immigration clearing centres on French soil…..if we let France take the lead in the design of the new missiles of course 😉
It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Approved work: Hypersonic missilesPublished Monday, 16 May, 2022
Wonder whether/how this initiative will interact w/ hypersonic munitions R&D under the rubric of Pillar Two of AUKUS Treaty? Munitions development confined to subsonic/supersonic arena? 🤔
This might be the answer!
“Russia, China and the US all appear to be making substantial progress in developing hypersonic missiles. The Governments of the UK, US and Australia announced in April 2022 that they will cooperate to develop hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities through the AUKUS partnership.”
O/T a modest but welcome increase in ISTAR capabilities
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/defence/latest/uk-shadow-upgrade-passes-critical-design-review