A day at sea: up close with the Royal Navy

View from the bridge – leaving Portsmouth

Together with a few others, I was recently given the rare privilege to observe the Royal Navy a close quarters by spending a day at sea aboard HMS Sutherland. There was a warm and friendly welcome as soon as we came aboard and it was obvious that the ships company are immensely proud of their ship and keen to show off what they can do. The commanding officer and executive officer were particularly enthusiastic, clearly relishing their work and the captain freely admitted he had “the best job in the world”.

The bridge team

Observing the bridge team at work, there is an atmosphere of calm professionalism (with a little friendly banter), commands are passed and repeated back and so there is no room for misunderstanding. During tricky evolutions such as entry and exiting of harbour, nothing is left to chance. There are a surprisingly large number of people on the bridge each with particular roles, acting as lookouts, taking bearings, reading charts and managing communications.

Sutherland is a Type 23 Frigate and together with the Merlin helicopter she is one of the best anti-submarine warships in the world. For slow-medium speed she runs on electric motors powered by diesel engines that are above the waterline. Below decks there is very little engine noise compared to most ships, only outside on the upper deck can you really hear the diesels. This is a great asset when hunting submarines because it’s harder for her to be detected by submarines and there is less self-generated noise interfering with the passive listening sonars. For higher speeds she starts up the Spey gas turbines and of course noise levels increase substantially. Sutherland is currently the ‘duty towed array frigate’. She can be called on to deploy quickly to investigate suspicious submarine activity around the UK. One of just 8 frigates with towed array, (the other 5 will not be fitted as a cost saving measure) the Type 2087 towed array sonar is a highly effective active and passive sonar streamed from the stern of the ship that can detect quiet submarines at long ranges.

Merlin helicopter and pilot on the flight deck

Even though the Type 23 was designed to take the Merlin helicopter, it still looks huge on Sutherland’s flight deck and it takes considerable skill by the pilot to land this large aircraft on a moving ship. The aircraft can be folded down and fitted snugly in the hangar where the maintainers can work miracles changing engines etc in the cramped space. The 3-engined Merlin has the sophisticated sensors and avionics to greatly enhance the range that the ship can hunt and destroy submarines. Its radar picture can be fed back to the ship, vastly extending the radar horizon. In addition to search and rescue and general transportation, the Merlin can be used for anti piracy and carries machine guns and powerful cameras that send real-time footage back to the ships ops room.

We witnessed a fire fighting drill, a crucial skill that must be practiced by all RN ships at least every 4 days. Fire is a great hazard at sea and warships with their maze of complex wiring are prone to electrical fires. Sutherland suffered 2 minor fires in the last year – both put out in under 2 minutes – a testament to the quick reactions that repetitive training builds. The operations room is quite unlike the rest of the ship. The warfare team sit in semi-darkness at consoles that display radar and sonar information and co-ordinate the fighting of the ship. We saw a demonstration air defence exercise where an incoming anti-ship missile was detected, chaff decoys fired (which failed to seduce missile away from the ship) and finally 2 Seawolf missiles were fired and destroy the target, although everyone is advised to “brace, brace, brace” as the speed of missile is such that fragments are still likely to impact the ship even if destroyed. Sutherland has had the SWMLU (Seawolf Mid Life Update) which means she should be able to deal with the latest generation of supersonic and highly manoeuvrable anti-ship missiles (Which make the Exocets encountered in the Falklands War look like a toy firework). She also has 2 remotely controlled (although not radar-guided) 30 mm cannons for close in defence. Mainly for ship protection and usually manned in confined waters against the threat of terrorists in small boats, she has no less than 6 GMPGs (General Purpose Machine Guns) and 2 x minguns mounted on the upper deck.

Recovering the RIB after boarding exercise

Also on show were seamanship skills – the swimmer of the watch went overboard in a drysuit to rescue a dummy ‘man-over board’ while the ships boats were lowered for a boarding exercise on an obliging tug with air cover provided the ship’s Merlin. Down below the head Chef gave a brief talk on the challenges of catering for up to 200 men on £2.20 per day/per man in a small galley, often in heavy seas. Apparently every dietary need is now catered for – halal meat is available, together with vegetarian options and even gluten-free food can be provided. The ship is usually steered from the bridge but, like all RN ships since the 1970s, the SCC (Ship Control Centre) is where the ships engines are controlled from as well as the generators and electrical services. There will be someone on watch in this space continuously unless the ship is shut down in a dockyard.

The ship served off Libya as part of Operation Ellamy in the early phases of the campaign, opening fire on land targets with her 4.5″ gun as well as mounting boarding operations. Of course there were also a multitude of other tasks for the Sutherland and more about the flexibility and diverse roles of surface escorts can be found in this article. Sutherland was relived off Libya and then deployed East of Suez as part of the long-planned Operation Cougar, exercising with other nations. On return to the UK she recently participated in Exercise Joint Warrior, hunting submarines in mostly very rough conditions off the North of Scotland. The sailors versatility was demonstrated by changing from ‘warfare mode’ to ‘diplomatic mode’ when she arrived London (video here) for a hectic series of formal and social engagements promoting the Royal Navy. After this weeks Maritime Combat Power Visit (MCPV) operating from Portsmouth, she is due to head to the Bay of Biscay for a multi-national ASW exercises. Later there will be BOST (Basic Operational Sea Training), hopefully some Christmas leave and then another lengthy deployment East of Suez in the new year.

Watching over the flagship HMS Bulwark

Sutherland’s busy programme, which often changes at short notice, reflects the current pressure on the Royal Navy to do more and more with less and less. With a tiny frigate & destroyer force of just 19, the pressure on ships has never been greater. In spite of the pride and dedication of the ships company, it is unsurprising that some admitted morale on board is fragile. With a few men leaving the ship in November having been made redundant, the rest of the crew struggle to take the 6 weeks leave per year they are entitled to under the constant pressure to go to sea. This takes its toll on personal relationships in particular and leaves many questioning whether they are willing to keep serving in the Navy in the long-term.

For the ambitious young officers the reduction in the number of ships inevitably means that opportunities for promotion and ultimately sea-going commands are going to be more limited in future. (4 more frigates have only recently decommissioned) The optimists may look forward to 2020 when the RN should have a very modern, small but very capable force of 2 new aircraft carriers, 7 Astute submarines, 6 Type 45 destroyers and the Type 26 Frigates arriving to replace the Type 23s. However there is plenty of time for politicians to screw this up and in the next 5-10 years the RN will contract further. Do they stay in the service and work exceptionally hard to make it as one of the lucky few who will get a command of their own, or leave now and pursue a career in the civilian world where there may be better opportunities? This over-stretch is grossly unfair to serving personnel and the blame must be laid firmly at the feet of government who are eroding the Navy as a great national asset, which (for the moment) still has the track record of the most successful fighting force in history.

My sincere thanks to the crew of HMS Sutherland for their hospitality and whose dedication and professionalism is a fine example of what’s best about this country.

A full set of photographs can be seen here

Related articles

• Albion and Sutherland return after Libya operations (British Forces News)
• Royal Navy frigate HMS Sutherland to sail under Tower Bridge (London SE1)
• HMS Sutherland begins boarding operations off Libya (MoD)
• Photo of the Week – HMS Sutherland fires at Libya

Autumn Round-up

Welcoming the 7th Defence Secretary in 10 years

Amidst allegations of conflicts of interest and personal mis-judgements, Defence Secretary Liam Fox has finally resigned. (To be replaced by Philip Hammond ) The Royal Navy is facing a ‘perfect storm’ – lack of money, lack of stable political leadership and above all lack of long-term national strategy for defence compounded by the fact that the US is no longer willing or able to subsidise Europe’s defence. While the ‘grown-ups’ in the Navy Board try to plan and build a strategy for the Navy’s future with a dwindling budget, the ‘children’ in Westminster play at politics, driven by short-termism, unable to see beyond the next election or tomorrow’s headlines. An example of this is the aircraft carrier programme that survived the last government only because it created a lot of jobs near Gordon Brown’s constituency. It only survives now thanks to BAe Systems being wiley enough to write a bullet-proof contract for their construction that would cost the government more to cancel then continue. The carriers are not being built because politicians really understand they are a long-term strategic tool. This was demonstrated by the contradictory axing of HMS Ark Royal and the Harriers. [We consider carriers vital and are building new ones that are central to our defence strategy / We don't consider carriers vital and won't have any for the next 10 years] Duh!

Lessons from Libya

Spinning the truth to suit their version of events, David Cameron claimed that the success in Libya ‘vindicated the his Strategic Defence Review while ex-Defence Secretary Liam Fox told a bare-faced lie when he said the Harriers couldn’t have done what the Tornadoes achieved in Libya. Libya has actually strengthened the case for aircraft carriers and put paid to an Army view that suggested all future conflicts would be counter-insurgency and our forces should be radically re-shaped accordingly. (Although they cling to their irrelevant & expensive main battle tanks). It is possible that if HMS Ark Royal had still been operational at the start of the uprising, she could have arrived off Libya within a week. In the initial stages of the revolution when the rebels were at the gates of Tripoli the Harriers could have deterred or prevented Gadaffi’s forces from rolling them back, thus shortening the conflict, saving lives and cost. Instead the RAF mounted ludicrous/ineffectual long-range Tornado missions from the UK and deployed to Italian airbases and hotels at great financial cost. The RN used amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean as a makeshift carrier operating Army Apache helicopters to provide some close-support but this was no substitute for what the Harriers could have achieved. (The French strike Carrier Charles De Gaulle was pretty vital to the operation). Long after media interest has moved on and the RAF have gone home for tea and medals, RN elements remain off Libya – HMS Bangor clearing mines and making the ports safe and HMS Liverpool clocking up 150 days at sea in an epic deployment. (Soon to be relived by HMS York). An official summary of the excellent work done by the RN during the Libya operation can be viewed here.

RN Redundancies: personal tragedies and public waste

The 5,000 redundancies forced on the RN were always going to be painful and unfair on some individuals (see previous post) but further analysis shows the supposed cost benefits may not even exist. Taking into account recruitment, training, redundancy payments and possible welfare costs, a study by The Phoenix Think Tank concludes that the average sailor laid off now, will cost the tax payer more for the next 3-4 years than if they remained employed in the RN. In other words the cost-savings from these redundancies will not be felt until at least 2017. Not only is the RN badly weakened by losing a sixth of it manpower strength, but it is questionable what financial saving will be made.

Many are asking why the RN is not making more Admirals and senior officers redundant while ratings bear the brunt of cuts? There are 3 good reasons for this. (1) The RN is the most technically complex and diverse of the services and requires a greater proportion of officers and skilled men. (2) It makes sense to retain the more qualified, experienced and expensively trained people than those who could be more easily replaced. (3) Any organisation that is ‘down-sizing’ still needs its leaders even if the main workforce is shrinking.

HMS Albion into reserve

HMS Albion on a recent visit to Liverpool. Now 'mothballed' until 2016 Photo: © Chris Jameson 2011

RN flagship HMS Albion, commissioned in 2003 has paid off and will now go into ‘extended readiness‘ (ie laid-up in mothballs) for the next 5 years at Devonport. This modern and versatile ship will be unavailable to the RN and Royal Marines until 2016 as another cash-saving measure. At least there are no plans (at present) to flog her to a foreign navy or even scrap her. HMS Bulwark becomes the new flagship – the 3rd in 2 years after the loss of HMS Ark Royal.

The RAF: a self-licking ice cream?

There are many fine pilots and hard-working ground staff in the RAF but beware the mighty RAF self-promotion and PR machine (funded by us all from the defence budget). A recent survey by a market research company revealed that there are approximately 3 pro-RAF stories appearing in the media to every one for the RN or Army and this publicity monster employs more than 150 photographers – more than the RN, RM and Army combined! The RAF News is published fortnightly while the Navy and Army manage with monthly publications. In the academic world, RAF-supported airpower students heavily outnumber naval students thus ensuring an enduring weight of support in the Civil Service and institutions. The Red Arrows looping the loop all over the UK ensure the RAF is kept in the public consciousness together with the almost religious reverence for the ’1940 Battle of Britain myth’. (Without wishing to diminish the achievements and bravery of ‘the few’ of Fighter Command, it was ‘the many’ of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet that was as important in deterring the Germans planning the amphibious invasion). It takes serious dedication and a lot of tax payer cash to keep justifying the existence of 40,000 people, 630 aircraft (of which 143 are gliders) and £7bn a year for the RAF when many of its functions could be done more efficiently by the other services.

Related articles

• Defence Secretary Liam Fox resigns (telegraph.co.uk)
• Former head of the navy says Liam Fox was ‘right to resign’ (Portsmouth News)
• The implications of Royal Navy personnel cuts (Dr Lee Willet, RUSI Video)
• Plans to mothball navy’s flagship HMS Albion remain (Portsmouth News)
• The RAF Argument is wearing thin’ (Phoenix Think Tank)