Roll out of HMS Clyde – New Helecopter capable OPV

Guys if anyone is interested, Vickers have officially delayed the in service date of Clyde by 3 weeks due to ongoing work.

Sorry I meant to say VT not Vickers.

Guys if anyone is interested, Vickers have officially delayed the in service date of Clyde by 3 weeks due to ongoing work.

They’re 25 years old, and it’s been 25 years of operating in harsh seas, I’m not sure that they’re really ships countries would want other than at the bottom end of the market with countries unable to pay for anything newer. Destroyers and Frigates can have very long lives as they’re so expensive and often don’t spend much time at sea, but OPV’s are not really high value vessels and do spend a lot of time at sea.

There is an interested party, wishing to modernise their Maritime Security Agency. Expect news fairly soon, or as is the case with quite a few second-hand projects, never to be heard from again…

Thanks pred.

Too big and handy to go to waste I would of thought that several countries would happily take them on. There would even be space to up arm them I think so watch this space I suppose.

I will be interested to see who ends up buying the Castle class vessels, far too handy to be scrapped or shot up.

There is an interested party, wishing to modernise their Maritime Security Agency. Expect news fairly soon, or as is the case with quite a few second-hand projects, never to be heard from again…

Would River class OPV’s be a good option for T&T? Those boats are built for long endurance in heavy weather, they’re not very fast (that was a trade off for sea keeping and endurance) and they’re pretty big boats for offshore patrol. I’d have thought T&T would want a high speed design, especially for drugs interdiction, and whilst I know the weather in the Caribbean and Atlantic shelf can be severe T&T is well South of the hurricane area and it’s not like the North Sea or south Atlantic. Most of their offshore installations are not that far offshore either, it’s not like Brazil or the North sea where some of the rigs are way way out to sea.

Trinidad&Tobago wants three OPVs, though VT Group is iirc offering three new build Rivers and they expect news on this sometime soon, apparently still in 2006.

I will be interested to see who ends up buying the Castle class vessels, far too handy to be scrapped or shot up.

Call me a cynic, but if it follows usual UK practice then the British tax payer will stump up millions on a major refit/upgrade and then immediately sell them to somebody else for about 5 pence 🙂

A patrol boat with a heli-deck.

Thank you 🙂

James

I will be interested to see who ends up buying the Castle class vessels, far too handy to be scrapped or shot up.

Video of the RN’s OPV, including the launching of Clyde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUI05Ob2p3g

Unicorn

Thanks for the info, I guess there will be plenty of time to clear her for EH101 ops. Do Bristow still operate the S61N down South for SAR and stuff? A few years since I was down there 🙂 This vessel does seem to have a lot of promise, I know a lot of people dismiss her as nothing more than a net checker, but the design seems to have a lot of growth potential for future derivatives, good sea going ability, good operating costs and is more than adequate for general Police/Coast Guard duties, freeing up the true surface combatants for duties better suited to them. I think one reason these boats get a bad press in some quarters is that in many other countries they would actually be Coast Guard/Police/civil enforcement agency vessels, so there isn’t that expectation of them being warships that comes from flying a naval ensign.

My apologies, I was under the impression she was also Merlin capable. Do you know if there are plans to fly the EH101 off her later?

Turbinia,
The deck is capable of operating the Merlin quite comfortably but she is not getting the clearances at the moment. The First of class flying trials will be completed by a Seaking Mk4 from Qinetiq with a Wave class RFA in company to support the trials and provide a spare deck facility. I suspect that not long after she deploys to the Falklands and meets up with a T23 which has a Merlin the request will come in to get clearance to carry out Deck Landing Practise with a Merlin. She will be able to operate Seaking all marks, Lynx all marks and possibly S61N (Falklands based).

All the best

Si

May sound thick here but what is a 80m Offshore Patrol Vessel (Helicopter), 😮 :confused:

James

A patrol boat with a heli-deck.

Follow the various links and all will be revealed 😎

May sound thick here but what is a 80m Offshore Patrol Vessel (Helicopter), 😮 :confused:

James

The high-low mix is interesting, it is true politicians will be tempted to build up numbers with mediocre ships (something the RN is familiar with anyway, think Type 42 and Type 21 which were recognised as pretty deeply flawed ships from day one but were built down to a cost and allowed the RN to build decent numbers up) but the reality is we have no choice. There will never be enough T45’s to replace our surface fleet on a 1:1 basis and any cheaper alternative will almost certainly have the same cost problem if we want a true high end combat vessel. There is also the point that the RN has a history of using high end resources where you don’t really need to and it’s been true for many years that good sea going patrol vessels of the type the USCG has always operated would be an excellent asset to the RN, allowing them to meet policing, fisheries protection, drug interdiction duties etc. without sucking in huge resources, the River class do seem a good basis for such a type in the RN, they’re capable of operating in heavy seas with decent endurance and are cheapish to buy and operate.

She will only be cleared to operate Lynx and Seaking.

My apologies, I was under the impression she was also Merlin capable. Do you know if there are plans to fly the EH101 off her later?

I’d assumed that’s what the two CVF’s are building for, to beef up the fisheries protection squadron? :dev2:

Heeee heee heee. Next time those Icelanders start throwing their weight around . . . . . :diablo:

The two Castle class OPV’s do not have an embarked helicopter but have a full size heli deck and re-fueling facilities for supporting heli ops so I imagine the Clyde will be the same. Some of the earlier River class OPV’s have enough deck space for a small helicopter but the Clyde has a proper deck to support EH101 ops.

She will only be cleared to operate Lynx and Seaking.