UK: HMS Dauntless Pays Visit to Miami

HMS Dauntless, the second of Britain’s six cutting-edge Type 45 destroyers, has completed hot weather trials with a visit to Miami.

This is the Miami skyline and the last port of call for the Portsmouth-based warship before she concluded her mini-deployment to the USA.

The £1bn destroyer headed across the Atlantic with two goals in mind: firstly to show the Americans, French and Russians what a Type 45 can do during an annual exercise involving the four navies; and secondly to see how the ship performs in a much hotter climate than the UK’s.

CPO Taff Govier, Dauntless’ communications manager, said:

“We found ourselves chasing heat.”

“Having completed cold weather trials in Norway earlier this year, it was very pleasant being at the opposite end of the scale.”

His Commanding Officer, Capt Richard Powell, added:

“We want to make sure that before we send these ships east of Suez, into the Gulf region, we know how they will perform, that the weapons will work and how the accommodation is – is it cool enough inside the ship.”

The highest temperature recorded by the ship was 34˚C (93˚F) which is a good few degrees shy of what the Type 45s might expect east of Suez (in Bahrain and Dubai at the height of summer it’s around 40˚C), but it nevertheless proved a good test for Dauntless air conditioning plants.

Taff explained:

“In Norway, if you were cold rectifying it was as simple as adding another layer of clothing. The problem here was trying to keep cool while the engineers worked tirelessly to balance the air conditioning aboard.”

“I’m pleased to report it got much, much better and habitability throughout the ship increased tenfold.”

There’s no need to fret over the air conditioning now as Dauntless is back in Portsmouth undergoing a spot of maintenance before an autumn of training ahead of her inaugural deployment in the New Year.

[mappress]
Source: royalnavy, August 14, 2011;