Just weeks after the first sailors joined, Britain’s newest warship HMS Glasgow is beginning to make friends for life.
The small number of sailors assigned to the first of eight new City-class/Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates have started to forge ties with affiliates which will be bound with the warship for a quarter of a century or more.
Glasgow is currently in build at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Govan on the Clyde.
The first of her 161 sailors joined earlier this autumn to work out the ship’s routines and to begin putting together the ‘operators’ manual’ to help shipmates operate the many complex systems when they join the vessel.
Another key role is to give Glasgow her heart and soul – the ship will be home to thousands of men and women throughout her lifespan, and she will become an important link to the many thousands more who built the frigate and have an investment in her success.
Among them is RAF 120 Squadron (also known as CXX Squadron), based at Lossiemouth in northern Scotland.
Operating the new Boeing Poseidon MRA1 multi-role maritime patrol aircraft, equipped with sensors and weapons systems for anti-submarine warfare, as well as surveillance and search and rescue missions, the squadron – whose personnel include Royal Navy warfare specialists as well as RAF crew – draws upon an 80-year history of hunting the enemy below, beginning with the fabled Liberator back in 1941.
With a clear anti-submarine warfare bond between the two units, a delegation from 120 paid their first visit to the Type 26, allowing airmen and sailors to brief each other on the roles and capabilities of their respective platforms, followed by Glasgow’s sailors showing the RAF personnel around the 8,000-tonne warship.
“Our visit to HMS Glasgow has provided an excellent insight into how the Royal Navy will conduct anti-submarine warfare in the future and we will look forward to working alongside Type 26 in the maritime domain when HMS Glasgow enters service,” said Flight Lieutenant Harry Greensill, a Weapon Systems Officer from 120 Squadron, responsible for managing the sensors and weapons onboard the Poseidon (similar to the role of an Observer in the Fleet Air Arm).
Commander Mark Quinn, HMS Glasgow’s Weapon Engineer Officer added: “Poseidon and Type 26 will make a formidable contribution to the Joint Force, not just to multi-domain anti-submarine warfare, but across the spectrum of operations.
“The opportunity to develop our professional relationship with 120 Squadron at this early stage in the build of HMS Glasgow is really welcome.”
Other early activities at forging the new ship’s identity have included sailors participating in the City of Glasgow’s Remembrance Parade.
And the ship has handed over an historic keepsake to a Clyde shipbuilding museum. Back in 1942, the Govan yard – then known as Fairfield’s – launched the last King George V-class battleship, HMS Howe.
A commissioning gift of an intricately-carved wooden box and gavel was made by the yard’s apprentices.
With Howe scrapped in the late 1950s and the name not resurrected, the gift made its way into storage in the Royal Navy trophy store in Portsmouth.
It agreed to loan the gift to the Fairfield museum – in the highly-ornate original company offices in the shipyard where it was made – and can now be seen by members of the public after being presented by the frigate’s Senior Naval Officer Commander Phil Burgess.
