By George Allison – August 8, 2016

It has been revealed that HMS Clyde will be replaced by one of the five new Offshore Patrol Vessels currently under construction in Glasgow.

HMS Clyde was constructed to replace the Castle class patrol vessels for duties around the South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands.

Clyde incorporates an extended length hull, a 30 mm cannon, two miniguns and mountings for five general purpose machine guns. The elongated hull permits a flight deck able to accommodate a Merlin sized helicopter.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2015 announced a further purchase of two new Batch 2 River class ships, in addition to the three already ordered.

The three Batch 1 ships without flight decks will be withdrawn in favour of the newer ships.

During a Defence Select Committee in July 2016, the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Andrew Jones indicated that the option for a fleet of ‘up to six’ offshore patrol vessels had been reduced to five, with Clyde being replaced by one of the new Batch 2 ships.

The First Sea Lord also elaborated on the potential uses for the Batch 2 ships overseas, including the possibility of forward basing an extra ship at the Falklands Islands, or forward basing it elsewhere. Admiral Sir Philip Jones said:

“Well, you are absolutely right that they have proved enormously useful, flexible and reliable ships. There are four vessels that we have in service at the moment. Three are Tyne, Mersey and Severn, which operate largely in UK waters on fishery protection and offshore tapestry protection, and of course they are increasingly working with the Border Force and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in support of protection of UK waters. Then we have a fourth one, which is permanently based in the South Atlantic.

We have had those ships in service for quite some time now. We are looking at replacing them with slightly larger and more capable ships in due course anyway, so that was already in the course of production to bring three of those in. The additional two will enable us to take a longer term view of how we replace HMS Clyde, which is a slightly larger helicopter-capable version of the OPV. We are looking at a number of ways in which we might use the fifth one.

So, the fourth one is clearly a Clyde replacement.

The fifth one can either be added into the mix for the three that operate in UK waters or it could be forward-deployed somewhere else in the world, or it could become a second vessel operating in the South Atlantic. All those options are available.”

The new ships are different in appearance and capabilities to the Batch 1. Notable differences include their longer hull, higher top speed, Merlin capable flight deck and greatly expanded capacity for accommodating troops.

Original post ukdefencejournal.org.uk

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HMS Clyde

*Name:*	*HMS Clyde*
Ordered:	2005
Builder:	VT Shipbuilding
Laid down:	2005
Launched:	14 June 2006
Sponsored by:	Mrs Lesley Dunt, wife of Vice Admiral Sir Peter Dunt (Retired)
Commissioned:	30 January 2007
Homeport:	HMNB Portsmouth
Identification:	P257
Motto:	Clwo “Strength”
Status:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	River-class patrol vessel
Displacement:	1,850 to 2,000 tonnes.
Length:	81.5 m (267 ft 5 in)
Beam:	13.5 m (44 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:	Two Ruston 12RK 270 engines developing 4,125 kW (5,532 hp) at 1,000 rpm
Speed:	21 kn (39 km/h)
Range:	5,500 nmi (10,200 km)
Endurance:	21 days
Boats & landing craft carried:	1 × Pacific 22 RIB 1 × Rigid Raider
Troops:	20
Complement:	36
Armament:	1 × 30 mm DS30B gun 2 × Miniguns 5 × General purpose machine guns
Aviation facilities:	Merlin-capable flight deck

Image: shipspotting.com

River-class Batch 2 OPVs

General characteristics
Type:	Offshore patrol vessel
Displacement:	Batch 2: 2,000 t (2,000 long tons; 2,200 short tons)
Length:	Batch 2: 90.5 m (296 ft 11 in)
Beam:	Batch 2: 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:	Batch 2: 2 × MAN 16V28/33D diesel engines, 14,700kW/10,950HP, 2 shafts 2 × controllable-pitch propellers
Speed:	Batch 2: 25 kn (46 km/h)
Range:	Batch 2: 5,500 nmi (10,200 km)
Endurance:	Batch 2: 35 days
Boats & landing craft carried:	Two Pacific 24 RIBs
Troops:	Batch 2: 26-50
Complement:	Batch 2: 34
Sensors and processing systems:	Batch 2: Kelvin Hughes Ltd SharpEye navigation radar[6] Terma Scanter 4100 2D radar BAE CMS-1 Shared Infrastructure operating system
Armament:	Batch 2: 1 × 30 mm cannon 2 × Miniguns 2 × General purpose machine guns
Aviation facilities:	Batch 2: Merlin-capable flight deck
Notes:	Batch 2: 16 tonne crane