Patrol Ships and Minehunters are the smaller fighting ships of the Royal Navy. The world-leading mine countermeasures ships keep the sealanes safe from unexploded ordnance, while offshore patrol vessels play an important role in UK home waters by enforcing fishery laws and providing a presence in UK oil and gas fields. The smaller inshore patrol boats are adept and flexible units providing support to the Fleet and a unique insight to the Royal Navy for university students.
Patrol Ships and Minehunters
HMS Atherstone
Minehunter HMS Atherstone is one of eight Hunt Class mine countermeasures ships based in Portsmouth. Built by Vosper Thornycroft, Atherstone (known affectionately as the Crazy A) was launched in March 1986.
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HMS Atherstone
Minehunter HMS Atherstone is one of eight Hunt Class mine countermeasures ships based in Portsmouth. Built by Vosper Thornycroft, Atherstone (known affectionately as the Crazy A) was launched in March 1986.
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HMS Pembroke
Minehunter HMS Pembroke is one of seven Sandown-class minehunters based in Scotland.
The hull and large amounts of the superstructure are built from glass reinforced plastic (GRP), ensuring a strong non-magnetic ship, fit to survive the shocks associated with minehunting activities.
HMS Pembroke uses high-powered sonar to search underwater for mine-like contacts. Upon detection of a contact, classification runs are conducted on various frequencies. Once identified as a potential mine, the Seafox mine disposal system is able to visually identify the target as a mine and then destroy it.
HMS Pembroke also has her own mine clearance diving team which is used to identify potential mine threats beneath the surface.
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HMS Echo
Echo was launched at Appledore in Devon in 2002, and was designed to carry out a wide range of survey work, including support to submarine and amphibious operations, through the collection of oceanographic and bathymetric (analysis of the ocean, its salinity and sound profile) data.
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HMS Archer
HMS Archer is the first of the Archer P2000 class 20m Fast Patrol Boats built by Watercraft in 1985. She became Aberdeen University Royal Navy Unit (URNU) training vessel in March 1991.
Aberdeen URNU was the first of the 14 URNUs and formed in 1967.
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HMS Tyne
HMS Tyne is the first of a trio of River-class patrol ships built to safeguard the fishing stocks in UK. The ship is one of the busiest in the Fleet. Like younger sisters Severn and Mersey, she spends on average nine out of every ten days of the year at sea.
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HMS Ramsey
HMS Ramsey is one of seven Sandown-class mine countermeasures ships based in Scotland. Presently she is one of the four UK Mine Countermeasure Vessels (MCMVs) permanently deployed in the Gulf where she patrols sea lanes and operates against the threat of mines.
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HMS Protector
HMS Protector is one the newest additions to the Fleet, an impressive and incredibly versatile survey and ice patrol ship preparing for her first deployment. The ship is on loan to the Navy to plug the gap until the fate of Britain’s long-serving Antarctic patrol ship, HMS Endurance, is decided following her flooding in late 2008.
Operations
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Weekend Proved Busy for Royal Navy Rescue Operations22/05/2012
As well as providing more than 600 personnel to parade at Windsor and welcoming the Olympic flame at RNAS Culdrose, it has been a busy few days for the Royal Navy. Fishery Protection vessels HMS Mersey and Tyne were both called out over the weekend to deal with separate emergencies in the South West, while HMS York helped with the search for three fishermen missing with their boat, the Perbeck Isle.
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Tyne and 771 Combine to Rescue Injured Fisherman15/05/2012
This is the dramatic moment an injured French fisherman is winched to safety thanks to the combined efforts of HMS Tyne and 771 Naval Air Squadron
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Royal Navy Begins Huge Olympics Security Exercise04/05/2012
The Royal Navy’s largest ship, HMS Ocean, sailed up the River Thames today to take part in a major military and civilian exercise to ensure the London 2012 Olympic Games are as safe and secure as possible.
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University boats leave the Mersey beat behind for spring deployment26/04/2012
University patrol boats HMS Biter and Charger linked up with submarine HMS Turbulent and rescue fliers of HMS Gannet during their spring deployment. The two Mersey-based patrol craft, which serve the universities of Manchester/Salford and Liverpool, took their students on a tour of North-West England and western Scotland.
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World War 2 hero laid to rest at sea by HMS Ledbury25/04/2012
Minehunter HMS Ledbury took a break from her duties with a NATO force in the Mediterranean to commit to the sea the ashes of Petty Officer Charles Henry Walker, a hero of the Malta convoys of World War 2.
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