Royal Navy UAV Group - The Fleet Air Arm has its own Unmanned Aerial Vehicle unit in the form of 792 Squadron at Culdrose which was reformed in November 2001 from the former Fleet Target Group at Portland (which had closed in 1998).    792 Squadron currently operates the Italian MIRACH 100/5 unmanned subsonic drones which have been used in the past to test the SEA DART and SIDEWINDER missiles and now moves on to the service SEA VIPER.    The MIRACH drone is a 13ft remote controlled jet which flies at speeds of up to  600mph from altitudes as low as 10ft or as high as 40,000ft for up to 90 minutes.

DIAMOND Ready - The Type 45 Destroyer DIAMOND is now ready to deploy having fired for the first time the ship’s SEA VIPER anti-aircraft missile system, downing a drone target on a range off the Outer Hebrides.    The DIAMOND was participating in Exercise Joint Warrior off western Scotland.    The SEA VIPER system is made up of the ASTER Mach 3 missiles, SAMPSON radar and the combat and command system onboard, using the silo (on the forecastle) containing the SYLVER vertical launch system.      

MONTROSE Big Easy – The Type 23 Frigate MONTROSE, homeward bound after a South Atlantic Patrol, spent six days in New Orleans as to mark the American celebrations of the bicentennial commemorations of the War of 1812.   The MONTROSE joined ships from the USA, France and Canada berthed on the Mississippi for New Orleans Navy Week 2012.    The Americans were commemorating the last time our two countries fought each other, in the War of 1812 – a war partially caused by the Royal Navy, and one which saw British warships engaged from the Great Lakes to the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf of Mexico.    The war actually dragged on until 1815 and cost the lives of upwards of 20,000 from battle and disease (15,000 on the American side, over 5,000 British and Empire troops and sailors).    It was sparked by an ongoing trade embargo and blockade aimed at Napoleonic France with the Royal Navy’s pressganging of merchant sailors and ships into its service.   The war inspired the lyrics American national anthem, saw British troops burn Washington (including the White House and the newly completed Capitol) in 1814, before the British were decisively beaten at New Orleans in January 1815.

Exercise Saharan Express - En route south to the South Atlantic, the Type 45 Destroyer DAUNTLESS played a key part in helping to keep the waters off West Africa safe during a major international exercise, joining warships and personnel from ten other nations off Senegal for Exercise Saharan Express aimed at dealing with the enduring threats of people trafficking, piracy, drug smuggling and illegal fishing.   The exercise was lead by French and British navies with the French represented by the helicopter carrier TONNERRE (‘thunder’).        DAUNTLESS was the most modern ship at the exercise and dwarfed the usual run of patrol vessels used by West African nations such as Gambia, Senegal and Morocco to tackle crime off their shores.    In a “Jeremy Clarkson” moment one media commentator described the DAUNTLESS as “She is the size of a cruiser rather than a destroyer, but can still reach up to 30 knots from a standing start in four times her length”.    The DAUNTLESS continues south for what is now termed the “Auriga 12 Deployment”.



Saint Helena Airport - In 2005, the British Government announced plans to construct an airfield on Saint Helena, which was initially expected to be operational by 2010, however this project was 'paused'.   Meantime Andrew Weir Shipping continued to manage the RMS ST. HELENA, the 1990 built Royal Mail Ship that operates between Cape Town and Saint Helena.   The ST.HELENA also makes regular shuttles continuing to Ascension Island with some voyages serving Walvis Bay on route to/from, or occasionally instead of Cape Town.   The ST. HELENA used to visit Portland (Dorset)  twice a year with normal calls in the Spanish ports of Vigo (northbound) and Tenerife (southbound) but since October 2011 that ceased with the ship making a final voyage from the English port and is now Cape Town based.

Saint Helena Airport is proposed airport will be constructed from 2012-2015  and in July 2010 the much delayed project was finally agreed with a 6,070 foot concrete runway to be built using UK taxpayer money, with the Island's Governor announcing in November 2011 that the construction contracts to have been eventually signed and the airport is expected to open in 2015.   The RMS ST. HELENA will thus be retired and it is hoped  that the airport will bring economic growth to the isolated island economy which, in the long term, is expected to lead to financial self sustainability and an end to UK budgetary aid.   The local media reports that the final sailing of the ST.HELENA will be in December 2016, and that the crew have already been notified of their impending redundancy.

 

An RAF TORNADO GR4 requires a runway of half that size, and it just over 800 miles from Ascension Island - but how many tanker aircraft would be required to get one from the UK the 4,200 miles to Ascension (bearing in mind the VULCAN operation in 1982!) ?

Poland Bound Refits – as part of seemingly a determined effort to take work away from British shipyards the Polish Remontowa at Gdansk has won a four (4) ship contract for the refit the four active MoD Sealift Ships HARTLAND POINT, HURST POINT, ANVIL POINT and EDDYSTONE.   These four ships are managed by Andrew Weir Shipping (Bank Line that was), and are all 23,235 grt ro/ro vessels.  

What’s In a Name ? - The military, The Independent reports, like to give their troop deployments and operations names this Banner, Telic, Herrick, and Ellamy (Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya respectively).    There is no name for the deployment 8,000 miles away in the Falkland Islands, where there has been a 30+ year commitment.    A Labour MP has now suggested, following a recent visit the islands, that an operational name would raise public awareness and remind people we have men and women based in the Falklands.      This at the time that the Argentine Ambassador to London, at the end of a meeting about human rights at Lancaster House to choose tackle the Foreign Secretary (William Hague) about the islands they call "Las Malvinas" urging "give peace a chance".    The Independent suggested, rather tongue in cheek that on that basis, “why don't they call the Falklands mission Operation Lennon ?” -  If Buenos Aires complains, London can say it was their idea”.