Britain’s newest operational warship – HMS Dauntless – has arrived in the world’s largest naval base ready to show international navies what she can do.
Fresh from working with the Americans’ newest carrier, the USS George H W Bush in the Western Approaches, the Portsmouth-based Type 45 has made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to take part in a series of exercises and trials.
Dauntless is Britain’s representative in the FRUKUS war games – annual exercises involving the navies of France, Russia, the UK and US (hence the acronym) with the respective nations taking it in turns to host; this year the honour falls to the US Navy in Norfolk, Virginia.
D33 encountered the Russian participant, the destroyer RNS Admiral Chabanenko, in the Atlantic and the two ships carried out various manoeuvres, exchanged personnel for tours, and sent their helicopters aloft (two Mk8 Lynx – the first time a pair of the nimble helicopters have embarked on Type 45 – from Dauntless, a Helix from the Chabanenko) during the week the two were in company, all of which will make working together during the crux of FRUKUS much easier.
The Americans have put six months of planning into the two weeks of FRUKUS which involves the Harry S Truman carrier battle group, a squadron of US destroyers, and the French frigate Ventose in addition to Dauntless and the Chabanenko.
The whole exercise is directed by an international task group staff from shore.
Once FRUKUS is completed, Dauntless will move on to carry out hot weather trials – particularly pertinent as the first Type 45 is due to deploy east of Suez in the near future.
The ship has already carried out cold weather tests – to see how the ship, equipment and ship’s company cope with severe sub-zero temperatures – off Tromsø in northern Norway earlier this year but, frustratingly, it was relatively mild. [mappress] Source: royalnavy, June 23, 2011;