Four of the smallest vessels in the Royal Navy’s inventory this week take their place in NATO’s biggest exercise in a generation.
According to a news release from the Royal Navy, patrol boats HMS Biter, Blazer, Exploit and Trumpeter have completed a month-long voyage from their base in Portsmouth to venture further north than any of their class – above the 70th Parallel – have gone in 35 years’ service.
“After a journey of nearly 2,200 miles from their home in Portsmouth, the quartet are ready to play their part supporting NATO raiding forces deep in the Arctic Circle as the first phase of the alliance’s huge winter exercise Steadfast Defender reaches its climax over the next week in the fjords, valleys and small towns and villages of Norway’s Finnmark and Troms districts.
While it takes a few days for most participating ships – Royal Navy involvement is led by aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales – to sail from Portsmouth to the exercise area, it’s been an epic of logistics, planning and engineering to send the fast patrol craft to the Arctic, The boats are designed for operating in coastal waters – usually at sea by day, returning to port at night, although they can be out longer, but never more than a few days.
As a result the four boats have ‘hopped’ from port to port on their epic journey to the Arctic, first via Ramsgate, Scheveningen and Den Helder (Netherlands), then the island of Helgoland off Germany’s North Sea coast and Esbjerg and Thyboron in Denmark. And then into Norway, gradually making their way up the west coast from Kristiansand in the southwest to north of Tromsø deep inside the Arctic (calling in for fuel and supplies along the way at: Egersund, Stavanger, Bergen, Florø, Måløy, Alesund, Kristiansund, Trondheim, Sandnessjøen, and Harstad).”
I wonder if cannistered CAMM has been considered?.. 😏
Behave…..!
Unless they are playing Opfor as small fast boats I can’t see why they are taking part in the exercise.
I recall they were also deployed to the Baltic last year, or year before that? All assets have their role regardless of size.
They have been deployed regularly in the Opfor role for many years, in Joint Warrior, Baltops and other Scandanavian exercises. I think they did an URNU training deployment to the Baltic at least once, but that must have been a decade or more back.
For the last 5 years plus the P2000s have been desporately searching for a role that justifies their cost. The RN university training squadrons have not been getting more than a handful of officers through the pipeline for over a decade. They have tried to take on some of the fleet protection and CT escort work of the carriers when they are anchored in UK waters, usually done by the Ministry of Defence Police Marine units. Unfortunately the boats are not any use for this and the crew training and skill set of the MDP is light years ahead in this role and I suspect they do it cheaper.
archer class 54 tons fast patrol and training
Given the current strength of the RN – these craft probably now count as major warships
As in the Social aspects of today’s modern trends You can be whatever You identify as these ships identify as whatever they want too be They are no longer Classed as coastal patrol OOW seamanship training they have bloody their Cheek and ventured forth and can identify themselves as Blue water front line Taxi’s for the POW officers and crew for a run ashore in Tromso I’m Joking Bergan.
Yip, you never know when you might need a pea shooter
Someone has to say it. The P2000s are not the smallest commissioned vessels. The Cutlass class is smaller as is HMS Magpie. This takes nothing away from the thrust of an interesting newspiece. Not everything has to be about the somethingest.
Quite! Also plenty of opportunities for some interesting runs ashore for the crew – good luck to them!
They passed us last week when we were shore fishing in a place called sandvikburget and being a commercial fisherman recognised them as fishery patrol vessels
Couldn’t we find any small boats to send?
They will back on board pretty quick with Norgi beer prices
having been in royal fleet auxiliary for 22 years.. having had my own cabin .hats off to the crew ..5 on a boat that size.. eating/sleeping./showers/heads ..and what about space for crew to relax..talk about cramped
What’s the point?!? If we ever went to war, these boats would stay around UK coasts. So the exercise is creating a totally unrealistic scenario
They are little more than training craft. Teaching seamanship & OOW skills. I used to drive/command/skipper a similar sized vessel with two on board.
They’re training in the coastal waters & ffords of Norway’s Finnmark and Troms districts, so training relevant to what they would be doing in uk coastal waters if we went to war. Very realistic then. Bigger ships like Prince of Wales will be further out to sea.
If Norway becomes a war zone who knows if they nay have a role not exactly many roads out that way. Very little turns out to be predictable when real conflict arrives, especially in those waters.
They should have done the journey with a mothership. Even at just 12 knots, the shortest route would have taken only 5 days. A mothership could have had all the fuel and food needed, even a 5th crew to rotate if needed. The result would be 3 weeks saved out and another 3 on the way back.
Alternatively, one of the two 37k ton Tide tankers doing this exercise could have towed all four at the same time without breaking a sweat.