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Specialist mine hunting ship formally becomes Royal Navy warship
21 July 2025
A specialist mine hunting ship formally became a Royal Navy warship today as she prepares for front-line operations protecting UK waters from underwater threats.
Acquired in 2023 for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and since carrying the moniker RFA Stirling Castle, the ship was today, in a rare move, redesignated as a fully commissioned warship of the Royal Navy fleet – therefore becoming “HMS Stirling Castle”.
Stirling Castle has been designated a warship as she will be committed 100 per cent of her time to front-line operations, allowing Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel to focus on their primary task of crewing the array of tankers and support ships across their fleet.
The White Ensign was hoisted at Stirling Castle’s masthead for the first time in a ceremony this morning in Birkenhead, with her 45 strong ship’s company of sailors and officers officially moving onboard the ship currently berthed at the Cammell Laird facility on the banks of the Mersey.
Stirling Castle – with her unique blue and white livery – will now take her place on front-line duties, carrying high-tech equipment, including autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, for specialist mine hunting operations, primarily in UK waters.
Commanding Officer, Commander Phil Harper, said: “This is the first time in living memory that Royal Navy personnel have taken over a ship from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
“I want to recognise the amazing work that the RFA have done in bringing this ship into service and preparing her for handover, and to thank them for the great head start we have been given in delivering Stirling Castle into service as a warship.
“We will soon be launching and recovering autonomous mine-hunting vehicles from this ship, keeping the seas safe for UK and allied warships and merchant sailors alike in an increasingly dangerous world.”
HMS Stirling Castle, which will call His Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth home, helps extend the reach and effectiveness of Royal Navy mine hunting operations and to make it safer for those sailors whose job it is to locate and destroy mines.
The ship marks a move away from traditional minehunting, embracing cutting-edge technology as she acts as a ‘mother ship’ for an array of remotely-operated and autonomous systems which will scour home waters looking for mines.
The ship began life as the offshore support vessel MV Island Crown but was snapped up by the Ministry of Defence in 2023 and underwent conversion at HM Naval Base Devonport to transform her into a vessel dedicated to support mine hunting.
She spent the last 18 months in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s care, helping the Royal Navy to keep pace with the evolving threat from naval mines – proving her worth to mine hunting operators.
Stirling Castle will continue to work closely with the Royal Navy’s mine hunting warships, but primarily the Mine & Threat Exploitation Group – the Navy’s experts in operating autonomous technology and assessing and destroying threats beneath the waves.
That work will continue as a commissioned ship and there are plans in the future to have the ship repainted in grey.