RN Frigates: Type 23 Duke Class

[Pelican]

REVAMPED HMS PORTLAND READY TO SHARPEN HER ANTI-SUBMARINE TEETH
02 December 2020
Christmas may be looming, but it’s Easter that’s firmly fixed in the diary of the crew of Devonport frigate HMS Portland.

The 152-strong ship’s company have just four months to complete a mammoth revamp of Royal Navy’s second-youngest frigate to take her to sea by Easter 2021 – her first time at sea in four years.

Portland is the latest ship in the Type 23 flotilla to undergo a major overhaul under the LIFEX or Life Extension programme which her sisters have gone through over the past five or six years.

After completing her last deployment in 2017 – to the North and South Atlantic – the ship was handed over to defence firm Babcock in 2018 to start her refit in the frigate sheds on the Devonport waterfront.

In the nearly three years which since passed, in the first for her class, two electric propulsion motors were removed, rewired and replaced, the Sea Wolf missile system has been ripped out and Sea Ceptor installed in its place, the 997 surveillance and 1084 navigational radars added, and the new to Royal Navy 2150 hull mounted sonar to sharpen her anti-submarine warfare teeth.

For good measure, machinery, computer and IT systems onboard have been overhauled, as have mess decks which were designed in the 1980s so they can meet the needs and expectations of 21st Century sailors.

Now to guide the ship through the final crucial weeks of the refit over the winter and spring, Portland’s first Commanding Officer in four years has been taken command: Commander Tim Leeder.

Continues at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... xqKkg6oagY

[Pelican]

Babcock completes Life Extension program of British Navy HMS Portland Type 23 Duke-class frigate.

SEE:
https://navyrecognition.com/index.php/n ... igate.html

Link from Tim.

[Pelican]

QUEEN’S FRIGATE HMS LANCASTER AT THE TOP OF HER GAME AS 2020 ENDS
11 December 2020
HMS Lancaster “is right up there with the rest of the Navy” after a 12-month transformation from untested grey hull to front-line warship.

The ship, which completed her duties for 2020 by returning to Portsmouth earlier this week, has been brought back to life by a new ship’s company and new commanding officer after four years out of action.

Continues at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... -lancaster

[Pelican]

SOMERSET EMERGES FROM SHED AS FRIGATE FLOTILLA REVAMP REACHES ITS CLIMAX
14 December 2020
Out of the shed as her major refit nears an end is HMS Somerset – the latest Royal Navy frigate to undergo the vital overhaul in Plymouth.

The warship has been moved from Devonport’s landmark Frigate Support Centre into the neighbouring basin… as her sister HMS Sutherland prepares to take her place in the covered dry dock.

Five Type 23s are currently in various stages of the LIFEX refit/revamp, a massive joint undertaking by the Royal Navy and defence firm Babcock to add an extra decade’s life to the workhorses of the Fleet.

Beginning with HMS Montrose back in 2014, the programme is reaching its climax, helping to allow the 23s to serve until their successors (Type 26 and Type 31 frigates) enter service.

Although some changes and improvements – such as replacing the Sea Wolf air defence missile system with Sea Ceptor, engine, software and sensor upgrades – are pretty much identical across the flotilla, other work, including strengthening the hull, improvements to living spaces and general maintenance, depends on the state and age of the ship.

The class traces its history back to the late 1970s, was designed in the early 1980s (taking into account lessons of the Falklands conflict), with the oldest frigate still in Royal Navy service, HMS Argyll, 30 years old in May 2021 and the youngest, HMS St Albans, 18 – the original lifespan planned for the 23s.

The latter is in the shed, roughly one third of the way through her life extension, with her older sister HMS Iron Duke.

Continues at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... rset-refit

[Pelican]

MONTROSE BACK ON PATROL AFTER OVERHAUL IN OMAN
12 January 2021
Frigate HMS Montrose has become the first Royal Navy warship to be overhauled in a new port in the Middle East.

The harbour at Duqm in Oman has been carved out of sand and stone over the past decade and is now both an important commercial port in the region – and a useful staging post for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels operating in the Middle East.

Over the past decade Duqm, which sits on the Gulf of Oman about 270 miles south of Muscat, has been turned into a major port, thanks to massive infrastructure investment – and, in part, to the Royal Navy which surveyed the approaches to the man-made harbour.

Britain also signed a deal with Oman to develop facilities at Duqm to support RN operations in the region, including carrier deployments (the new port has the second largest dry dock in the Middle East), developing a joint logistics support base.

Naval vessels have been making use of Duqm for the past five years – the port was the hub for the major Saif Sareea amphibious exercise with the Omanis in 2018.

Continues, with photos, at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... -duqm-dock

DUQM - See:
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/sa ... -to-watch/
And:
https://www.dredgingtoday.com/2020/01/1 ... man-video/
Also:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200 ... duqm-port/

[Brian James]

Type 23 or Duke Class Frigate HMS Montrose pictured carrying out protection duties,Strait of Hormuz,2019.

[Pelican]

Royal Navy

It is 69 years to the day that Her Majesty the Queen acceded to the throne.
To mark the occasion, 'The Queen's Frigate' HMS Lancaster is dressed overall on a beautiful winter's day in HM Naval Base Portsmouth after a period of intensive training.
The Type 23 frigate, named as all ships in the class after a duke, takes her title from Her Majesty in her role as the Duke of Lancaster.

[ivorthediver]

And long may she rein eh David , the vessel looks the part smart , traditions maintained , and still capable of making her presence felt wherever she may be moored

[Pelican]

LANCASTER LAYS DOWN THE LEAD TESTING EXTRA FIREPOWER
09 February 2021
There’s an extra layer of defence around HMS Lancaster and her 200 crew to keep her foes at bay.

The Portsmouth-based warship has been fitted with heavy machine-guns to fend off small, fast-attack craft – guns tested for the first time off the South Coast this week as the ‘Queen’s Frigate’ shakes off winter cobwebs.

After a hectic 2020, the ship began this year undergoing maintenance before resuming her place in the Fleet’s order of battle having sailed on Sunday.

The .50 calibre gun has long been a favourite of the Royal Marines (on WMIK Land Rovers, for example) and aircrew – it’s fitted to the Fleet Air Arm’s Wildcat and Merlin helicopters when they are providing air cover or hunting down smugglers.

But for close-protection ships either rely on the lighter general purpose machine gun (GPMG), sometimes the Minigun (a manually-operated Gatling gun) and, as a last resort, standard-issue SA80 rifles.

Continues, including photos, at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... caster-hmg

[Pelican]

HMS MONTROSE DEALS DOUBLE BLOW TO DRUG RUNNERS IN £11M BUSTS
17 February 2021
Drugs worth £11m will never reach the streets – or fund terrorist activities – after the Royal Navy swooped on traffickers twice in two days in the Middle East.

HMS Montrose pounced on suspicious dhows in the Arabian Sea – resulting in a haul of nearly two-and-a-half tonnes of illegal narcotics seized in the back-to-back operations.

The frigate – which is based in Bahrain on a three-year security mission – was on patrol as part of an international task force focused on policing Middle Eastern waters to stop criminal, and especially terrorist, activity.

In hot, dirty conditions, her Royal Marines boarding team scoured the two craft for hours on end to recover the illegal cargoes.

Continues at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... rose-drugs