HMS Duncan, the sixth and final of the UK’s sophisticated, new class of Type 45 destroyers, has been formally handed over to the Royal Navy by shipbuilder BAE Systems, the MOD announced today.
Divers from Royal Navy ice patrol ship HMS Protector have been exploring beneath the waves of the Antarctic to ensure stringent environmental guidelines are being followed in the region. In the process the diving team on board HMS Protector has been busy capturing rare underwater footage of the Antarctic.
South Atlantic patrol HMS Argyll has stopped at Lisbon to be briefed on the illegal drugs trade off West Africa in preparation for her Atlantic deployment, according to a Royal Navy release.
The survey ship 'HMS Enterprise' nets stunning images of a Grand Canyon-style ocean floor hidden deep under the Red Sea. Discovering the 250 metre deep canyon after leaving the Egyptian port of Safaga the ship used her sophisticated EM1002 Multibeam echo sounder to create the 3D images, allowing the ocean floor to be seen for the first time.
The Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll left on Monday from Devonport for the West African region and the South Atlantic to undertake a range of tasks in support of British interests worldwide. She replaces in her South Atlantic tour HMS Edinburgh, ‘Fortress of the Seas’ which is to be decommissioned next June.
Known as the ‘Fortress of the Sea’, HMS Edinburgh is the largest and the last Type 42 destroyer to serve in the Royal Navy. She finished her six month tour of the South Atlantic Islands this week and is due to be decommissioned in June, but before heading north again Falkland Islands residents were given the opportunity to have a peek on board.
The Disposal Services Authority (DSA) of the British Ministry of Defence has invited offers for the sale of four decommissioned Royal Navy Type 22 frigates. The frigates HMS Chatham, HMS Campbeltown, HMS Cumberland and HMS Cornwall all went up for the bidding process on January 23, with viewings available this month and next.
An expedition replicating Ernest Shackleton's 1916 perilous crossing of the Southern Ocean from Antarctica in a small boat has made landfall after a 12-day journey. Led by renowned adventurer Tim Jarvis, the team of six reached Peggotty Bluff on rugged South Georgia, where they landed their vessel in the same place Shackleton and his men beached the James Caird nearly 100 years ago.
The United Kingdom defence chiefs have drawn up new contingency plans designed to prevent hostile action by Argentina towards the Falkland Islands, ahead, during or after the March referendum, according to reports presented by English newspaper The Telegraph.
A Royal Navy warship used a routine logistical visit to Gibraltar on Wednesday to patrol British waters around the Rock. The highly unusual move came a day after an incursion by a Spanish Navy vessel and against the background of diplomatic tension between the UK and Spain over the waters row.