The Royal Navy’s state-of-the-art Sandown Class mine hunter HMS Bangor will visit Fishguard from February 12-14. The 52.7 metre ship will host a number of organised groups during her time in port, including local sea cadets and youngsters who have expressed an interest in joining the Royal Navy and want to find out more.
The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Toby Shaughnessy will also host a capability demonstration on Wednesday evening for invited guests.
And on Thursday morning a further group of invited guests will be able to experience a mine hunting demonstration in Fishguard Bay, followed by a lunch on board.
Normally based at HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland, HMS Bangor is one of seven Sandown Class mine hunters – five of the class make their ‘home’ at the Scottish base, while two others are on permanent deployment in the Gulf, with the ships’ crews rotating during each deployment.
Built of glass reinforced plastic, the design ensures that the ship is extremely quiet and has a very low magnetic signature, essential when operating in a minefield.
Equipped with the latest precise navigation and manoeuvring systems, which allow it to “hover” over a fixed point and search for mines with a variable depth sonar to depths in excess of 200 metres of water, Bangor can also deploy her clearance divers or latest state of the art submersible to deal with mines or suspicious objects.
In 2011 she deployed off Libya as part of the NATO operation Unified Protector to protect Libyan civilians under threat of attack.
During that operation, the small ship found and destroyed a 2,400lb mine and a torpedo lying on the seabed off the Libyan port of Tobruk.
HMS Bangor spent most of 2012 in and around her home port of Faslane, with visits over to her affiliated town in Northern Ireland and demanding multinational exercises such as Joint Warrior off the coast of Scotland.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, February 8, 2013; Image: Royal Navy