According to information published by the UK MoD on January 7, 2022, a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate returned to Portsmouth after five months on a critical patrol safeguarding UK waters and keeping a close eye on submarines on operations as far north as the Arctic Circle.
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Type 23 frigate HMS Westminster (Picture source: Pinterest)
Westminster has been at the tip of the nation’s submarine-hunting spear as the Royal Navy’s TAPS – the Towed-Array Patrol Ship – that is part of a comprehensive protective ring around waters key to UK interests, determined to keep the prying eyes of hostile submarines at bay.
The Type 23 frigate has patrolled vast areas of the Atlantic using her state-of-the-art weapons and sensors to track submarine movements but also escort ships through waters closer to UK shores.
Westminster spent 121 days of their 151-day deployment at sea, sailing 24,000 nautical miles and stopping in Hamburg in Germany, Trondheim in Norway and Reykjavik in Iceland along the way.
Their operations were diverse, from May Day calls for missing paddle boarders in the Irish Sea to monitoring surfaced Russian submarines as they transited through the Strait of Dover.
The frigate had on board a Merlin helicopter – Kingfisher Flight of Culdrose-based 814 Naval Air Squadron, which uses both sonobuoy listening devices dropped into the ocean and sonar lowered as the helicopter hovers to pinpoint a submarine’s presence.
The AgustaWestland AW101 (Merlin) base is a medium-lift helicopter used in both military and civil applications. First flown in 1987, it was developed by a joint venture between Westland Helicopters in the United Kingdom and Agusta in Italy in response to national requirements for a modern naval utility helicopter.
Several operators, including the armed forces of Britain, Denmark, and Portugal, use the name Merlin for their AW101 aircraft. It is manufactured at factories in Yeovil, England and Vergiate, Italy; licensed assembly work has also taken place in Japan and the United States.
