The Royal Navy's ice patrol ship HMS Protector on her trip to the Falkland Islands and Antarctica sailed past an old work colleague during a fuel stop in Rio de Janeiro earlier this week.
The Royal Navy's sole icebreaker HMS Protector is sailing for the Antarctic, her first visit to the frozen continent since 2019. With the UK about to be the focus of international efforts to tackle climate change as it hosts the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow, the unique survey/research ship will continue her work supporting scientists from around the world to study the impact of global warming.
Icebreaker HMS Protector sailed closer to the North Pole than any other Royal Navy ship in history on her first patrol of the Arctic. The survey and research ship crunched her way through polar ice to within 1,050 kilometres of the top of the world as she gathered data about the ocean and environment.
Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol Ship HMS Protector has been assigned two small rotary-wing drones, specially adapted for her unique mission in the polar extremes. Although the Devonport-based survey ship has a large flight deck, with no hangar she cannot take helicopters with her – unlike her predecessor HMS Endurance, which carried two Lynx.
The HMS Protector, the only Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, has returned to sea after a £14m revamp to improve her ability to work in Antarctica. Extra weight was added to the vessel during the work has improved her ice-breaking capability, the Navy said.
The Royal Navy has deployed extra medics to join Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Mounts Bay in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian. A team of 18 military medical staff arrived in the region and will provide emergency care, surgery and intensive care to those in need.
The Royal Navy’s sole polar research, survey and science ship HMS Protector has come through fire, flood, breakdowns and helicopter crashes – all scenarios testing her ship’s company so that she is safe to operate thousands of miles from the UK.
The ship has spent time in Antarctica supporting scientists and surveying the channels and waterways. HMS Protector has returned to Plymouth for the first time in four years. The ship spent a lot of her time in Antarctica supporting scientists and surveying the channels and waterways around the frozen continent.
The Royal Navy’s Antarctic patrol ship encountered an iceberg the size of Bristol as she began her final scientific mission of the season. HMS Protector came across the enormous mass of ice and snow – 11 miles long and five wide – as she returned to the frozen continent for the last time this winter – or summer as it is in the Southern Hemisphere.
Royal Navy survey ship HMS Protector smashed through nearly 300 miles of Antarctic ice to help scientists begin a five-year mission to understand how West Antarctica is contributing to global sea-level rise.