UK: Royal Navy’s Warship to Protect Trade Routes

The Royal Navy warship HMS Northumberland has completed final preparations and is now ready to deploy on a seven-month deployment policing crucial international maritime trade routes.

The Type 23 frigate leaves Plymouth on Monday morning (19th May) to relieve her sister ship HMS Somerset on a six-months patrol helping to keep the sea lanes open and clamping down on illegal activity in the region.

Her Commanding Officer, Commander Tristram Kirkwood, said: “My ship’s company is keen to get going on this demanding mission. It takes a tremendous amount of personal and professional commitment to regenerate a warship ready for operations and I am extremely proud of my ship’s company for the work they have done in getting us to this point. The ship’s company is rightly excited about the deployment and we are all committed to it being a success.”

“The ship’s company is rightly excited about the deployment and we are all committed to it being a success”, said Commander Tristram Kirkwood, Commanding Officer of HMS Northumberland.

HMS Northumberland has undergone an extensive period of regeneration to get her and her crew ready as a front-line fighting ship.

The ship conducted visits round the UK, including to her affiliated county of Northumberland and carried out trials and an intensive and challenging operational sea training programme under Flag Officer Sea Training staff to prepare for any event the patrol might throw at them.

HMS Northumberland is now poised for a deployment as part of the Royal Navy’s standing commitment in the Middle East, providing reassurance to the UK’s allies in the region, policing busy shipping lanes and carrying out maritime security and counter-piracy patrols.

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Press Release, May 19, 2014; Image: Royal Navy