VIDEO: HMS Dauntless to Spend the Weekend in Newcastle, UK

HMS Dauntless to Spend the Weekend in Newcastle, UK

The Royal Navy’s new and most technologically advanced warship, HMS Dauntless, will visit Tyneside this weekend (February 22-26), her first regional engagement with the area since her inaugural visit to her affiliated city of Newcastle in April 2010. The ship will be open to visitors on Sunday 24 February from 10am until 3pm.

The 7300-tonne Type 45 destroyer, and her crew of around 150, will go alongside Northumbrian Quay in North Shields on Friday February 22 at approximately 8.30am, for the start of a five-day visit and a packed programme of events.

The ship’s commanding officer, Commander Adrian Fryer, is assured of a warm welcome from Tynesiders, who will get their own chance to look around the 152-metres long warship when she opens to visitors on Sunday Feb 24, from 10am until last boarding at 3pm.

Another highlight, again on Sunday, is what is known as a Ship’s Company Review, a parade involving members of the crew marching along Ceremonial Way to Newcastle Civic Centre, with music provided by Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Band (Scotland). The parade is due to start at 11.30am and the Lord Mayor of Newcastle will take the salute. She is thereafter hosting a civic reception for HMS Dauntless.

The ship’s company will also be interacting with many of their affiliate organisations during the stay, including visits to the Percy Hedley Federation, a local school for adults and children with speech, language and communication difficulties, and to the city’s Royal Victoria Hospital. A reciprocal visit to the ship is also being laid on for them over the weekend.

There will be a number of tours of the ship for local schools, sea and combined forces cadets and other youth groups designed as a recruitment platform, plus affiliated organisations and local business groups will also visit the ship.

“This is a greatly anticipated visit to our affiliated city,” explained Commander Adrian Fryer, the commanding officer of HMS Dauntless. “We are lucky enough to enjoy a great level of interest and support from our affiliates in and around the North East and it is a real pleasure to be able to bring such an advanced warship ship home to interact with locals, our friends and affiliates in the area.”

“I know that my ship’s company is looking forward to welcoming local people on board during the ship open to visitors and they will be delighted to chat about their jobs on board, what the ship has been doing and what life is like in today’s modern Royal Navy.

“And it is a true honour that we have been invited to parade through the streets of Newcastle. I hope that people will come out to line the route and greet their crew of their adopted warship.”

Other events of note include a reception and capability demonstration soon after her arrival for a number of first-responder organisations such as the fire service and police, while over the weekend, Northumberland Golf Club has kindly agreed to host crew members seeking to lower their handicaps by providing free rounds.

On Monday night, Commander Fryer hosts an official reception for 120 guests, including the senior naval officer in Northern England, Commodore Dickie Baum, on board ship with the Royal Marines Band playing ceremonial sunset.

The ship will slip her berth at around 10am on Tuesday, Feb 26 to return to sea and her next operational tasking.

HMS Dauntless, the second of the Type 45 destroyers, joined the Fleet in November 2010, shortly after being the first of class to fire the new Sea Viper missile.

Almost two years later, she returned to her home base of Portsmouth in October 2012 after her maiden deployment to the Atlantic, where she notched up 30,000 miles visiting 18 countries across four continents.

During a series of exercises Dauntless worked with 27 other navies and provided training for 600 foreign military personnel. The ship also played host to almost 4,000 diplomatic guests on behalf of UK embassies and consulates in every port she visited.

The ship – which is due to be commissioned into the Royal Navy on June 3 in Portsmouth – will then slip her berth at North Shields on Tuesday, May 4 at approximately 10am to return to her ongoing sea-trials programme.

HMS Dauntless is part of the most powerful destroyer class ever built in the UK and one of the most advanced warships in the world. She is equipped with a state of the art air defence system which will be able to track and destroy a target the size of a cricket ball travelling three times the speed of sound.

 

Over 150m long, Dauntless will have a range of 7000 nautical miles. Together with her five sister ships, HMS Dauntless is designed to be a flexible multi-role vessel able to carry out a variety of tasks across the globe, from air defence role to humanitarian and anti-piracy roles.

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Naval Today Staff, February 21, 2013; Image: Royal Navy