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It’s goodbye from Forth, hello from Medway as patrol ships swap places in Falklands
19 January 2026
There’s a new naval guardian of the Falkland Islands as HMS Forth heads back to the UK for the first time in more than six years.
Her place as the Royal Navy’s permanent presence in the South Atlantic islands has been taken by her sister HMS Medway.
Forth is the first of five second-generation of Royal Navy overseas patrol vessels – each named after one of the UK’s great rivers – deployed on long-term missions around the globe, securing and promoting the nation’s interests.
Almost six years to the day Forth arrived to take on the role of South Atlantic patrol ship, the current Commander of British Forces in the region Brigadier Charlie Harmer, thanked the 50-strong ship’s company for their efforts, and welcomed their successors to the Falklands.
Since arriving at East Cove Military Port (located a short distance from the main UK base on the islands at Mount Pleasant), HMS Forth has conducted 155,000 nautical miles of patrols – the equivalent of seven times around the globe.
Most of her time has been spent sailing around the 778 islands which comprise the Falklands, providing reassurance to the 3,600 citizens, helping to enforce fishery protection regulations, working with the RAF and Army, and conducting general maritime security operations.
Forth has also visited the even more remote island chain of South Georgia – renowned for its wild/birdlife, as well as home to the grave of legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton – which falls within the Falklands’ joint operations area.
She’s launched her sea boat on 250 occasions, while one third of her crew has traded places with shipmates flying out from the UK roughly every 7½ weeks – 42 changes of personnel in all.
Her crew have become an integral part of life in the Falklands, attending major events in islanders’ calendars, such as Liberation Day in June (commemorating the end of the Argentine occupation in 1982) and Battle Day, marking the Royal Navy’s destruction of Admiral Graf Spee’s squadron.
Away from the routine, Forth faced a race against time beating winter storms in 2021 to deliver Covid vaccines to Tristan da Cunha – one of the most isolated inhabited islands on the planet.
And the ship represented the UK alongside 16 nations whose ships mustered off Rio in 2022 for Exercise Unitas, the world’s longest-running maritime exercise which has been held in the Americas for more than six decades.
She’s enjoyed one concerted break from the Falklands – a refit in Gibraltar in 2023 – during which time her place was taken by HMS Medway, now back at East Cove to assume Forth’s duties on a more permanent basis.
Commander Grahame Graham-Flint, who took charge of Forth shortly before her recent patrol of South Georgia and is now bringing her home to Portsmouth, said the islands would live on in the hearts of her crew.
“Our thanks to all those that have supported our time here,” he added. “Throughout our time in the South Atlantic, HMS Forth has been deployed at range on operations, working with the Army, RAF and other government partners as part of the British Forces South Atlantic Islands.
“Now handing over to HMS Medway, we begin our transit back to the UK in preparation for future tasking.”
Medway assumes South Atlantic patrol having handed over responsibility for the Caribbean where she’s spent the bulk of her active life.