HMS Tyne (P281)
HMS Tyne is the sixth Royal Navy ship to carry the name Tyne. She is a River-class offshore patrol vessel built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton to serve as a fishery protection unit within the United Kingdom's waters along with her two sister ships Mersey and Severn. All three were commissioned into service in 2003 to replace the five older Island-class patrol vessels.
 HMS Tyne on exercise in 2011 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | HMS Tyne |
| Ordered: | April 2001 |
| Builder: | Vosper Thornycroft |
| Launched: | 27 April 2002 |
| Commissioned: | 4 July 2003 |
| Decommissioned: | 24 May 2018 |
| Recommissioned: | 25 July 2018 |
| Homeport: | Portsmouth |
| Identification: |
|
| Status: | In Active Service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | River-class patrol vessel |
| Displacement: | 1,700 tonnes[1] |
| Length: | 79.5 m (260 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power: | 4,125 kW (5,532 hp) at 1,000 rpm |
| Propulsion: | Two Ruston 12RK 270 diesel engines |
| Speed: | 20 kn (37 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km) |
| Endurance: | 21 days |
| Boats & landing craft carried: | 2 × rigid inflatable boats |
| Troops: | 20 |
| Complement: | 30 |
| Armament: | |
Tyne was featured in the first episode of the BBC series Empire of the Seas, "How the Navy Forged the Modern World, Heart of Oak", presented by Dan Snow.
Description
The ships have large working decks to allow the vessels to cope in several roles, such as disaster relief, fire fighting, rescue work, and interception of other vessels. For this purpose a crane capable of lifting 25 tonnes (28 tons) is fitted, to enable standard containers to be used. The deck is also large enough to permit the transport of other craft such as oil spill recovery tractors and landing craft.
Operational history
Aside from her day to day fishery protection duties, Tyne was occasionally been called upon to undertake escort roles in the UK Area of Interest, two such examples occurred in the autumn of 2016 when Tyne was twice assigned to escort Russian warships through the English Channel.[2]
In March 2017 it was announced that Tyne would be manned by personnel usually assigned to Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel; this would allow her crew to transfer to the Batch 2 River class HMS Forth in build in Glasgow.[3]
Decommissioning and reactivation
In March 2018 Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defence, Guto Bebb revealed that £12.7M had been allocated from the EU Exit Preparedness Fund to preserve three Batch 1 ships, should they be needed to control and enforce UK waters and fisheries following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.[4]
Tyne's decommissioning ceremony took place alongside South Railway Jetty, Portsmouth on 24 May 2018.
HMS Tyne was recommissioned on 25 July 2018 due to construction issues delaying the entry of HMS Forth into service.
On 22 November 2018, Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced that three Batch 1 River Class ships would be retained in service and 'forward operated' from their affiliated ports.[5]
Post-reactivation
On 24 December 2019, Tyne was tasked with shadowing the Russian Navy's Smolnyy-class training ship Smolnyy Perekop (a Russian Baltic fleet training ship) through the English Channel.[6]
Following Britain's departure from the European Union in January 2020, Tyne and sister vessels HMS Severn and HMS Mersey were made available to the Fishery Protection Squadron"—nicknamed the "cod squad"—in case talks on fisheries with the EU break down.[7]
Affiliations
Her affiliations included North Tyneside Council, St Catherines Primary School, Hadrian Special Needs Primary School, TS Caledonia (Peterhead Sea Cadets unit), TS Tyne (Newburn Sea Cadets unit), and the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
References
- "Offshore Patrol Vessels". BAE Systems. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
- "HMS Tyne escorts two Russian warships through Channel". Royal Navy. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- "Mine hunting crews go fishing to help new-generation patrol ships enter service". Royal Navy. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- Guto Bebb, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defence (16 March 2018). "Ministry of Defence: Public Expenditure: Written question - 132371". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons.
- "MoD lifts axe on three Royal Navy patrol ships to boost UK fishery protection". Southern Daily Echo. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- "British warship shadows Russian navy vessel in the English Channel". Sky News. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- "UK to strengthen sea patrols to ward off post-Brexit fishing wars". The Guardian. 5 February 2020.
