New Endeavour Recovery Complex - A new rehabilitation facility known as the Endeavour Recovery Complex, which will form part of the Hasler Company Naval Service Recovery Centre at Plymouth, currently under construction at HMS DRAKE.      To mark the start of the second phase of construction, which is being funded by Help for Heroes, a foundation stone-laying ceremony was conducted.

The War Is Not Over For Some – the headline “Royal Navy divers blow up WWII mine” says it all.    A 76 metre plume of water and mud was thrown up by a 1,500 lbs German Air Dropped GC mine, safely blown up by Royal Navy bomb disposal experts off the Kent coast after a delicate operation to remove it from a dredger.   The mine had been brought to the surface by a dredger six miles north of Sheerness.  A four man team was summoned to conduct a controlled explosion from Southern Diving Unit 2 from Portsmouth.

First Sea Lord Admiral Praises 40 Commando RM – the First Sea Lord on a visit to central Helmand (Afghanistan) flew into a new “stone frigate” HMS PRICE in Nahr-e-Saraj, the hub of the 40 Commando RM mission during their six month tour of duty on Operation Herrick 17.   40 Commando RM are two months into the present tour.    This is the seventh time the Royal Navy’s elite amphibious infantry have deployed to Afghanistan on Herrick duties going back to 2006 – either as the lead British force in the theatre, or, as in present case, working under an Army Brigade.

HMS PRICE - a term given by the Royal Marines to their base –is home to some 650 men and women of 40 Commando RM who began their tour of duty in September (2012).      At the time of the visit the Marine Battlegroup comprises six Royal Marines companies – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Command and Logistics – plus Delhi Company (1st Battalion The Royal Ghurkha Rifles) and the (Danish) Viking Armoured Infantry Company. including a troop of LEOPARD 2 tanks from the Jutland Dragoon Regiment, supported by various British Army personnel and units.    Of these six companies, only three are actively involved in operations: Bravo in the south (of the Nahr e Saraj district), with Alpha and Viking Companies working out of HMS PRICE.

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Platform at Sea – A PUMA UAV has been operating from the Landing Ship RFA CARDIGAN BAY in the Gulf where the vessel is serving as the Minehunter Support Ship.    The PUMA UAV reconnaissance drone is trialled by the US Navy which uses the RFA CARDIGAN BAY as a floating base by USN Riverine Patrol Boats, which have run into and out of the impressive loading dock.     The USN Riverine Squadron are currently trialling the PUMA – the full, and rather convoluted title is Pointer Upgraded Mission Ability (All Environment) – to see what the small intelligence gathering aircraft might offer to warships on patrol.

California's AeroVironment Corporation has designed the 13 pound five feet long drone with a 9.2-foot wingspan that is able to land just about anywhere and is launched by hand, and powered by a small battery pack that allows it two hours of flight time with a 10,000 foot operational ceiling.     The drone normally only flies 500-1000 feet off the ground and each “PUMA System” is made up of a trio of air vehicles and a pair of ground-based control systems, and carries an electro optical and infrared camera with an 860 nanometer laser illuminator.

The trials aboard RFA CARDIGAN BAY and other vessels in the Gulf, are the first by the US Navy in an operational capacity.     The idea is that the PUMA drone is used for reconnaissance, or in support of board and search or rescue missions – being a lot cheaper and easier to send aloft than a helicopter – if one is available – and its size means that it is difficult to detect at high altitude.      A two-strong team directs the PUMA sorties; an Operator to fly it, and a Mission Controller who determines where to fly and what to look at.      Once a mission is done the drone can be brought back to its Mother Ship or landed in the water; it can stay afloat for several hours and be collected by a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat).

The use of such UAV drones, especially of craft with no embarked helicopter capability, such as the British River Class Patrol Boats of the Fishery Protection Squadron and the Falkland Guardship, would seem to offer ideal testing grounds, or ideed a pactical opertunity to to prove the PUMA operationally. 

SPITFIRE Find – Not the Burmese discovery of buried treasure but the new name of the new Survey Launch embarked on the Survey Ship ENTERPRISE on duty East of Suez.     The SPITFIRE found two undiscovered wrecks in Dubai producing 3D images of the two dhows in one of the world’s busiest harbours.    The ENTERPRISE departed the UK in September (2012) with the new Survey Motor Boat SPITFIRE onboard which can be sent off independently to gather data at the same time as the mother ship – effectively doubling the ship’s capacity to chart.       After trials in the UK and around Souda Bay (Crete).    The first real test of SPITFIRE came off Dubai with two days of surveying work in tandem with the ENTERPRISE.     The SPITFIRE is fitted with a multi-beam sonar among other survey equipment

ENTERPRISE will be carrying out survey work in the Middle East until May (2013), and is continuing on the work of sister ship ECHO which discovered numerous wrecks and obstacles during a recent 19 month deployment to the same region.

APACHE Gunships Are Go – Embarked on the Helicopter Carrier ILLUSTRIOUS on the current COUGAR 12 deployment to the Mediterranean launched two of the 656 Squadron Army Air Corps APACHE Gunships to fire live HELLFIRE missiles on the ranges off Gibraltar.    Seven tank busting missiles were successfully fired by the APACHE as the "carrier" headed “west” bound for Portsmouth having completed the vessels COUGAR 12 deployment.

The pairing of ILLUSTRIOUS and 656 Squadron carried out the first live HELLFIRE firings in UK waters in the Spring (2012) and each APACHE Gunship can carry up to 16 HELLFIRE missiles mounted in sets of four on pylons beneath the Helicopter’s stubby wings.     The missile leaves its launch rail and accelerates to a speed of Mach 1.3 (950 mph) which means it takes fewer than 20 seconds to reach a target at its maximum range of five miles.

SCIMITAR Goes to North Africa – The Fast Patrol Boat SCIMITAR of the Gibraltar Squadron made a short visit to Tangier (North Africa) to work with the Moroccan Navy and honour wartime personnel buried in the country.     The SCIMITAR carried representatives from the Royal Air Force, the Royal Gibraltar Police and a bugler from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and made a surprisingly smooth passage.    After leaving Tangier the SCIMITAR during the transit back to Gibraltar carried out two hours of communications and manoeuvring exercises with PB113 of the Royal Moroccan Navy.