RFA Cardigan Bay practised with US patrol boats for the first time.
According to the Royal Navy, the vessel which acts as a floating command ship and support vessel for the Royal Navy’s four Bahrain-based minehunters, ‘rafted up’ with two Mark VI Patrol Boats at her home in Mina Salman port.
“The manoeuvre – well-honed with British and US minehunter crews, who frequently bring their ships alongside Cardigan Bay to take on board fuel and other supplies to sustain operations in the Gulf – saw two American crews bring their craft safely alongside the much larger Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel.
The ten-strong crews of boats 1201 and 1204 carefully – and successfully – manoeuvred their craft into position several times, ready for the RFA crews to cast lines down, providing excellent training for both the Brits and Americans, and especially the patrol boat coxswains.”
The US Navy’s 3rd Coastal Riverine Squadron operates four Mark Vis in Bahrain for numerous duties including launching/recovering surveillance drones, force protection missions – the 45kt craft carry a mixture of automated and hand-operated machine-guns – and board-and-search missions. They can also be adapted for minehunting duties.
Been looking at the spec ‘s for those Mark Vi…. blimey !!
Why can’t we have these for parol boats ;P
According to NAVSEA, the weapons and C4SIR government-furnished equipment (GFE) cost about $6 million for each MK VI in FY2014 dollars. Each boat in FY2014 cost the US Navy approximately $8.6 million, excluding the GFE.
With 10 man crew
Now where’s my bank card
Pros and cons.
They look a bit small for home waters, maybe fine for the Med or Gulf though.
Seems right for Gibraltar squadron replacement though
Yes something like this would be in the right ballpark for the Gib Squadron. Bigger but not too much so and fast enough to keep up with the Guardia Cival boats.
Are they more heavily armed than our Rivers!?
Well these are just patrol boats capable to be configured for other duties
No flight deck…
Well-armed for their 85-foot size, the CRF’s MK VIs are gunboats and currently do not have Griffin or SPIKE missiles installed. As of May 2019, weapons systems include:
· 2X MK38 Mod 2 or 3 (25mm) gun weapon systems (GWSs). A remote-controlled and operated stabilized chaingun with electro-optical sensor integrated with a fire control system in a rotating turret for all weather conditions, day or night, engagement. Effective firing range is 2.5 kilometers with 168 ready rounds. These cannons can be controlled and fired from safely inside the ship’s superstructure. The MK38s are removable to allow for more open deck space forward and aft of the cabin or for mounting the MK 50s.
· 4X MK 50 Mod 0 GWSs. A stabilized small arms mount (.50cal M2HB) for mounting on the fore & aft deck foundations and/or fore & aft roof foundations.
· 6X heavy machine gun foundations for any of the following weapons:
o MK-19 (40mm automatic grenade launcher)
o M2HB (.50 cal (12.7mm) heavy machine gun)
o MK44 GAU-17 (7.62mm minigun)
o M240 (7.62mm medium machine gun)
o M249 SAW (5.56mm light machine gun)
Hi John
Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I was not being completely serious, of course no range, flight deck, and a different beast than a RB2.
Even so, that photo shows an awful lot mounted, even if some might be is FFBNW.
I think after the Us navy’s- Iranian incident a while back! They have buit these and given them a up gunned, modular, fit if\when required feel to them. plus a limited minesweeping role i think?
Something i suppose between a Sandown and a River
I’m guessing they will be replaced by these?
“U.S. Navy Gets New Heavily-Armed Port Patrol Boat”
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-navy-gets-new-heavily-armed-port-patrol-boat
I have worked on these things and done some deep maintenance on them and been out for a drive as well which was entertaining!
In discussion with the CO operator of the vessel he said it is the BMW of the Patrol Boat world. You pay your money and you can go from A to B.
However like BMW if you want to do it in comfort in a nice seat… that’s an optional extra.
Radios, Radar, 25mm Bushmasters, Thims, 50cal, 7.62s, 40mm AGL Thumpers, cabin, galley, beds all optional extras. Basically no change out of 15m Dollars.
They have a flat keel and legs that drop down from the back of the quarterdeck so they can dock down and stay upright in an LPD Dock which is nice. They are Aluminium which means they are light ( 70t empty) but they need a shed load of kevlar protection and the hull is not that robust, it is ally after all. Twin MTUs driving water jets means they are fast and manoeuvrable.
The operators i worked with where still trying to work out what to do with them. The USN originally wanted 50 odd boats. That has been cut well back to something like 12 . They are mostly used as large force protection boats or as littoral patrol boats . To be honest I cannot see what the UK would use them for. 15 mil to escort a frigate or destroyer in and out of Guz or Pompie is a steep price to pay for what they are.
If Riverine ops became more important would they be worth the spend in place of, or supplementing, the RMs ORCs?
I think this shows the value of a ship with a dock. Its a shame that the T31 design was”tt based on the Absalon and therefore had a dock for Unmanned vehicles or small boats
I would like to see the marines get CB90’s to replace their ORCS and a lot of them too..
It’s an excellent asset that offers a great deal of flexibility and is proven, I know the RM had some on loan to test, not sure what the view of these were though
A useful bit of kit!
https://www.naval-technology.com/projects/combatboat90/
Its a lot bigger than an ORC. CB 90s where trialled by the RM from an LPD amongst other things and they decided to stick with the LCVP . The CB 90 is the same size as a LCVP and to get it to work from the davits on a LPD it would need a lot of work on the davits and the supporting structure on and in the hull which all adds to the cost of bringing them into service.
A CB 90 is also a lot more of a complex machine and to be honest an LCVP is pretty much Royal and Matelot proof. You would also lose the ability to move smaller vehicles as a CB 90 doesn’t do that.
CB 90 and ORCs are not like for like.
Agreed Gunbuster, they are not the same, but we are building a new fleet of vessels and I think we should be looking to design into these the ability to have this capability or similar.
For me i see a dispersed commando force being delivered in small batches spread out or in mass and these would need to be supported by Caimens or S2S connectors from a FLO FLO or other mothership.
It’s also handy for inshore patrolling and riverine and is proven, different yes, worth considering I think given the way it can be altered for lots of different tasks.
I am a fan of these and in general we should be looking at our Scandinavian cousins and trying to learn lessons as the total spend for Norway, Denmark and Sweden is less than £15bn per annum and the have some great kit between them, including Visby Absalon, huitfeldt, Gotland, CB90 and Nansen classes and are producing some really good missiles as well.
Think we need to change tack and go smaller and deadlier personally.
Basically these can runaway faster from anything that outguns them and outguns anything floating that can catch up to them.
This shows the value if a ship with a dock It’s a shame that the T31 design doesn’t have a dock like the Absalon class. As deploying manned and unmanned boats etc Is useful
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think the Absalon class as a floodable dock? Also, the Type 31 will be able to launch boats through its adaptable mission bay.
You are correct
What an a salon can do is deploy a CB90 out of it via a rear door, which is a force multiplier. The extra deck it has over the huitfeldt also makes it a more flexible platform imo.
The decision is made for the uk but it is a pity we never fully embraced an absalon Mk 2 design merging all the lessons learned from the 2 classes using this base design. Who knows perhaps we have