HMS Daring taking on Bangers and Birds

HMS Daring, the Royal Navy's newest and most powerful warship, made her first visit to Marchwood military port in Southampton this week for ammunition handling and loading trials. The Type 45 destroyer arrived at the port, known as the Sea Mounting Centre, for a 24-hour visit as part of ongoing trials designed to test all parts of the ship's capabilities before she is formally accepted into the Royal Navy fleet - and able to be deployed anywhere in the world - early next year. HMS Daring's Commanding Officer, Captain Paddy McAlpine, said: "The visit to Marchwood is an important part of the ship's trials programme and we will be working hard to make sure we come through it successfully." HMS Daring - the first of the Royal Navy's six Type 45 destroyers - was built and launched in Glasgow and made her first entry into her home port of Portsmouth Naval Base in January. The second, Dauntless, is undergoing sea trials and will arrive at Portsmouth Naval Base for the first time early next year. The main weapon of the Type 45 is the sophisticated and lethal Principal Anti-Air Missile System, comprising a multi-function radar (MFR), automatic command and control system, and surface-to-air missiles operating in conjunction with long-range and early warning radar. The MFR can detect all types of targets out to a distance of 400km and is capable of tracking hundreds of targets simultaneously. Her long-range radar provides a 3D search capability and can track up to 1,000 targets. The Type 45 also has a comprehensive suite of other weapons and equipment, including a 4.5-inch (114mm) main gun for shore bombardment, and is equipped with a surface ship torpedo defence system, protecting it against the most advanced torpedoes. Daring's on-board power plant can supply enough electricity to light a town of 80,000 people, and she is fitted with enough electrical cable to circle the M25 motorway three times.

Royal Navy Helicopter Search & Rescue Crews Rewarded

Members of Royal Navy helicopter search and rescue crews have received bravery awards from the Queen for three dramatic rescues, it was announced yesterday.

Lieutenant-Commander Martin Lanni and Petty Officer Aircrewman Kevin Regan, from HMS Gannet in Prestwick, were presented with the Air Force Cross and Queen’s Gallantry Medal respectively.

Lieutenant-Commander Lanni, 39, flew the helicopter that plucked three climbers off a cliff on Ben Nevis in a daring night-time operation in atrocious weather.

The men were trapped on a ledge in a blizzard, out of reach of the mountain rescue team. The four-man helicopter crew worked for more than six hours to reach them, retreating off the mountain four times to regroup. Despite a dropping fuel gauge, the Sea King returned twice more to lift 12 members of the mountain rescue teams to safety.

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Without the helicopter’s intervention, in May 2007, lives would have been lost.

Observer Lieutenant-Commander Martin “Florry” Ford was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in the Air for his part in the rescue.

Petty Officer Regan, 30, was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for two rescues, one of which involved plucking a man who was high on drugs and extremely aggressive out of Loch Long, Argyll.

Police in a boat attending the incident, in June 2007, had been unable to rescue the man. Petty Officer Regan was lowered on a short line from the helicopter and faced verbal and physical abuse before the man passed out, allowing the officer to winch him clear, a difficult task as he was unconscious. Petty Officer Regan then administered emergency first aid en route to hospital.

In another incident, in January last year, Petty Officer Regan was part of a crew that rescued six people from the deck of a stricken ferry in the Irish sea near Blackpool.

In the dark and in dreadful weather, MV Riverdance was listing 45 degrees in heavy seas. Because of the conditions the rescue had to be rapid, and Petty Officer Regan risked his own safety by unclipping from the winch line to allow passengers to be lifted two at a time to speed the evacuation.

Lieutenant-Commander Lanni said: “It was an enormous honour to travel to the Palace of Holyrood and to receive my award from Her Majesty the Queen.

“It is a true high point in my career with the Royal Navy. It was a surprise to hear that I had been awarded the Air Force Cross and it makes me feel humble to be recognised in such a way for simply doing my job.

“That said, it was a tough rescue and the stakes couldn’t have been higher. I had a superb crew with me and we all pulled together to make sure that those climbers were taken to safety. And the Lochaber Mountain Rescue members also deserve a mention and recognition for their critical role in this rescue.”

Petty Officer Regan said: “This has been an extremely proud moment for me. I’m just really pleased and still surprised that I have been awarded this honour.

“Growing up I never expected that I’d end up meeting the Queen. Obviously it’s nice to be honoured, but both rescues involved a four-man crew so this is for all of us, not just me.

“At the end of the day we were just doing our job and given the circumstances I’d do exactly the same again.”

Altogether, five members of HMS Gannet — 20 per cent of the Royal Navy’s personnel at the unit — learnt that they had been variously awarded the Air Force Cross, Queen’s Gallantry Medal and Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in the Air.

The honours covered four complex and dangerous rescues that led to more than 20 lives being saved.

A further three unit members were awarded a Commander in Chief Fleet Commendation for their roles in a number of rescues.

In 2007 HMS Gannet became the UK’s busiest helicopter search and rescue station since records began, with 359 call outs, assisting 349 people, of whom 286 were casualties.

Last year the station broke its own record, with 382 call outs, on which 347 people were rescued. The station provides cover for 98,000 square miles around the west of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.

US, Royal Navy Hone Battle Skills

In the midst of a full-fledged multinational exercise off the coast of the United Kingdom this May, U.S. Navy and Royal Navy leadership are collaborating with one another to form a stronger joint, allied force for current and future operations at sea.

With seven countries participating in the Joint Warrior 09-1 exercise to hone the battle skills and readiness of allied forces, the American and Royal fleet are learning and drawing from one another's expertise and skill sets.

"We want to help as much as we can, because that strengthens the bond between the U.S. and the Royal Navy, which is historically already unbelievably strong," said Capt. John Kersh, commodore, Commander, Destroyer Squadron 24. "We are teaming with some of our strongest allies and partners so that we can all draw upon these good feelings when we get in theater. It's a very, very positive relationship."

As Joint Warrior takes place in the U.K., Royal Navy officials are visiting the States to learn more about the U.S. Navy's expertise in aircraft carrier-centric operations at Commander, Strike Force Training Atlantic (CSFTL). With the Royal Navy making preparations to add two more aircraft carriers to their fleet, senior leadership is drawing upon U.S. expertise and example in training carriers and associated staffs to successfully fulfill missions abroad.

"Our organization stateside is set up to train an entire strike group and staff, whereas theirs is geared toward training individual ships at higher levels", said Kersh. They can take what they learn from us and apply it to carrier strike group organization, and we learn their individual ship ops expertise and communication styles, in addition to near-land procedures and NATO rules of engagement."

With so much partnered alignment between U.S. and Royal Navy leadership, sharing relative strengths to provide ready, allied maritime forces for global assignment will play a pivotal role in the execution of the American maritime strategy. Multiplatform coalition exercises like Joint Warrior only strengthen the existing teamwork and operational efficiency between the partnered nations.

"It takes a lot of resources to put this coalition-intensive exercise together, sequenced correctly and with so many intricacies involved," said Kersh. "But it's so important because in a real-life, in-theater situation, things could get complicated very quickly if we don't thoroughly understand how our allies operate. Working together so closely beforehand helps to side-step a learning curve; we need to be fully battle-ready together now, not when we get over in theater and it's time to perform."

Joint Warrior is a two-week, multinational training evolution incorporating five U.S. Navy units and a host of allied forces, focusing heavily on strategic training evolutions and strengthening partnerships between NATO members. The exercise also integrates Fleet Irregular Warfare Training (FIWT), placing emphasis on more non-traditional warfare areas like counter-piracy and theater security, in addition to calculated responses to some of the newer emergent threats around the globe.

"Opportunities for us to work with our allies during exercises like JW are vital," said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Jones, weapon engineer officer for the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll (F231). "They allow us to practice common procedures at all levels of warfare, from humanitarian aid and enforcing embargoes to high-intensity warfighting. We can meet face to face, talk as one professional mariner to another, and gain a better understanding of each other's cultures and ways of life, strengthening at an individual level the common interests our two nations share."

Step aboard a Royal Navy warship

TEWKESBURY residents will be able to experience life inside a Royal Navy warship later this month thanks to the latest technology.

The multi-media roadshow will come to the Tewkesbury Park Hotel on Wednesday, February 25 at 6.30pm. Visitors will be able to take a virtual look inside submarines and aircraft as well as battleships.

Commander Ian Pickles, leader of the Royal Navy Presentation Team (RNPT) said: “Although everyone in the UK has heard of the Royal Navy, sometimes their understanding of what we do and why we do it can be less clear.

“This presentation aims to convey what the Navy does on a day-to-day basis and explain how taxpayers money is spent and what return the public can expect from its investment.”

For more information on the presentation and to register to attend visit www.royalnavy.mod.uk/rnpt or call 020 88338020.

Royal Navy helps to train Iraq’s new sailors

Since 2003 a largely unsung and unnoticed Royal Navy team has led the rebuilding of the Iraqi Navy, all of whose ships and small craft were destroyed or disabled during the military, naval and air actions that accompanied the US-led occupation of the country in 2003.

Within the next few weeks 32 Iraqi sailors will move to La Spezia in Italy to pick up the first of four 390-tonne Saetta MkIV patrol vessels built by Fincantieri. After training they will sail her 6,000 miles — three times her normal range — to the base at Umm Qasr at the top of the Arabian Gulf. This is a giant leap for an Iraqi naval service that has existed for barely five years and has only operated small craft in home waters. The present Iraqi Navy has never before left the Gulf.

As the British officers commanding the naval transition team are all too clearly aware, the Royal Navy’s people are in the country as guests, and require their trainees’ consent to be effective. An early decision was made that the Iraqi Navy should be a secular organisation and this is how it remains — Shias work alongside Sunnis with few problems. Family is crucial and religion plays a central part in their lives. British instructors are full of praise for the courage of the people they train, in an environment where even to be clean-shaven carries a risk.

What is the purpose of the Iraqi Navy? It must police and defend Iraq’s coast and territorial rights where the waterway border is in dispute and navigational hazards are considerable. Generating 90 per cent of Iraqi income, the two offshore oil platforms and the Khawr al-Amaya and al-Basra oil terminals must be protected. Iraqi sailors and marines must deter aggression, smuggling and other illegal activities.

The Royal Marines have been teaching boarding in what are known as “compliant” and (euphemistically) “non-compliant” scenarios. The US Coastguard trains Iraqi personnel in anti-narcotic operations. Huge progress with shoreside infrastructure has been made under American guidance.

All the Royal Navy training staff are keenly aware of the vital necessity for getting out on the water right at the beginning of training and learning the practice of seamanship (as happens at Dartmouth and most other naval academies).

Right from the start the philosophy has been: “Put them in a boat for four days and drive around, one has a fighting chance of teaching the theory on day five. Start in the classroom — and there’s no chance.” The “small boat mentor” was a young leading seaman, who taught shiphandling and weapons skills. His humour and language were as salty as one would expect from a sailor who has a practical message to get across — and he was greatly liked by his charges.

Delivering today and building for tomorrow is not easy in Iraq. Given the area’s recent history and the devastation that has been visited on it, it is astonishing that anything can be made to work. Administration can be dysfunctional; the prevailing “Insh’allah” (“God willing”) mindset militates against forward planning and systematic engineering maintenance; budget management and logistic support can be difficult.

But leadership is being learnt. The present CO of the naval transition team, Captain Phil Warwick, is broadening trainees’ experience and raising their ambitions through voyages in coalition warships and participation in helicopter patrols. “For the first time, the Iraqi personnel are outgrowing their current equipment,” he reports.

The new vessels are a modification of the Dicotti class patrol boats already in service with the Italian Guardia Costiera and the Maltese Maritime Squadron. With their offshore patrol capability (they have a range of 2,100 nautical miles at 16 kts) and their complement of four officers and 34 crew, they will add a completely new dimension to the Iraqi naval experience.

RAF Trying to Take Over Fleet Air Arm. The Light Blue Needs To Back OFF... Land Crabs... Not Sea Crabs...

The RAF is trying to take over the Royal Navy’s historic Fleet Air Arm and assume control of all army helicopters in a plan to cut more than £1 billion from the defence budget.

The navy clashed with the air force at a meeting of senior officials last week. Its admirals are furious about a campaign, waged under the slogan “one nation, one air force” which would see the Fleet Air Arm scrapped in 2013, a few months before its centenary.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, chief of the air staff, is proposing to scrap all 75 Harrier jump jets shared between the navy and the air force.

Helicopters operated by the Army Air Corps, formed in 1957, would also come under RAF control. Its aircraft include Apache gunships which support troops on the front line, although transports such as the Chinook are already flown by the RAF.

The changes would leave the navy with no planes for its carriers until the new Joint Strike Fighter is introduced, which is unlikely before 2017. RAF chiefs want their pilots to fly the new aircraft from the carriers.

Senior naval sources say Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the first sea lord, has threatened to resign over the plans, although the Ministry of Defence said the claim misrepresented his views.

John Hutton, the defence secretary, told forces chiefs to come up with a plan to make up a £2 billion shortfall in their budget at last week’s meeting of the defence board.

A drop in the number of helicopters across the forces from the current 580 to 320 over the next four years makes the RAF plan for a single defence helicopter command look logical. It would also allow the axeing of bases and hundreds of posts.

The Army Air Corps and Fleet Air Arm are vulnerable because, under plans announced earlier this month, their 300 Lynx and Gazelle helicopters will be replaced by just 62 Future Lynx craft.

Army sources said the cut in helicopter numbers meant two Army Air Corps frontline regiments were likely to be disbanded by 2014, leading to the loss of more than a third of the organisation’s 3,000 personnel.

The Royal Naval Air Service was set up in 1914 and pioneered the use of aircraft carriers. In 1945, the successor Fleet Air Arm, had 3,700 planes flying from the navy’s 59 carriers.

Naval hits

1940: Torpedo planes sink much of Italian navy at Taranto

1941: Planes cripple German battleship Bismarck 1982: Sea Harriers shoot down 21 Argentinian aircraft in Falklands war for loss of two planes to ground fire

Missing Royal Navy Life?

1. Build a shelf in the top of your wardrobe, fit a thin mattress and sleep on top of it.

2. Remove the wardrobe door and replace it with a curtain that is too small.

3. Wash your socks and underpants in the bathroom sink every night, then hang them on the water pipes to dry.

4. Four hours after you have gone to bed, instruct your wife to whip open the curtain, shine a torch in your face and say, "Sorry mate, wrong pit!"

5. When you have a shower, remember to turn the water off when you soap.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, sit in a wobbly rocking-chair and rock as hard as you can until you are violently sick.

7. Put diesel oil into a humidifier and set it on high to achieve that wonderful Ship Aroma.

8. Don't watch TV except for a movie at 2030. For added realism, have the family vote for which movie to have and then select a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in the house to re-create correct noise levels.

10.Have the postman or paperboy give you a haircut fortnightly.

11.Once a week, blow compressed air up your chimney, ensuring that the soot is carried over to your neighbour's home. When he comes to complain, laugh in his face and say "That's life in a blue suit mate"

12.Buy a rubbish compactor, but only use it once a week, storing all of your rubbish in the shower cubicle.

13.Wake up at midnight each night and make a sandwich out of anything you can find.

14.Have a fridge in your home specifically for beer. put a lock on it and give the key to the local policeman.

15.Keep spare keys for above and empty it every lunchtime.

16.Devise your family menu a week in advance without looking in the fridge or freezer.

17.Once a month, take apart every household appliance then re-assemble them.

18.Use four spoonfuls of coffee per cup and wait 3 hours before drinking it.

19.Invite 40 people you don't like, to stay in your house for a couple of months.

20.Install a small fluorescent strip light under your coffee table then lie underneath it to read a book.

21.Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of all the doors in the house, so you will either bang your head or skin your shins every time you pass through them.

22.When baking a cake, prop one side of the cake tin against the side of the oven and when it has cooled, spread icing thickly on lower side to even it out.

23.Every so often throw one of the dogs into the bath and scream "Man overboard!" Sling in a sponge with a flag on it, then run into the kitchen and sweep all the pots and pans onto the floor and yell at your wife for not securing for sea.

24.Get your wife and kids to clean their rooms every evening and at 1900 wander around the house with the local policeman.

25.Name your favourite shoes "Steaming Bats" then get the kids to hide them around the house.

26.Lie on your bed, or sofa and fart for absolutely no reason.

27.Insist on going to the local post office for your mail and get them to phone you when it is ready for collection.

28.On Saturday morning walk around the house, whistling loudly and insist that everyone you pass stands to attention.

29.Paint the outside of your house battleship grey and put the number on the wall in big black letters.

30.Put windows and a bloody big wheel in your loft.

31.Every Thursday at 0500 in the morning, run around the house yelling "Hands to Action Stations!"

32. When the family demands more food, yell back at them "WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR 39p PER DAY, PER MAN"!