Sailors from the Royal Norwegian Navy have spent two days at HMS Raleigh learning to transfer fuel, stores and other essential supplies from ship to ship at sea.
The group of six sailors were able to get some hands-on experience of the operations using the Royal Navy’s replenishment-at-sea training rig.
The facility is a static mock-up of two ships standing side by side with a space between to replicate the sea.
Lieutenant Steinar Vallen of the Royal Norwegian Navy said,
“We don’t have a facility like this in Norway, so it means a lot for us to come here to HMS Raleigh.
“Replenishment-at-sea is one of the most dangerous operations we do in peace-time, so it’s important for us to do it safely and that no one is harmed.
“We have power-point presentations, so we can train theoretically in Norway and we can hook up all the equipment and go through it on deck, but it is the hands on practise, which in my experience is the best thing to do.”
During replenishment-at-sea operations ships can operate as close as 30 to 40 metres of each other while underway at sea.
Transfers can take place in all weather conditions, day or night, with the ships linked together between heavy tensioned wires, which are used to transfer the loads.
The Royal Norwegian Navy is one of a number of nations who use the facility at HMS Raleigh.
Sailors from the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Belgian Navy have also been trained in replenishment operations using the rig at the training base in Cornwall.
[mappress] Press Release, December 10, 2013; Image: Royal Navy