Britannia Squeeks
The Royal Navy has spent the past 14 weeks gearing up a mine countermeasures response to send to the Persian Gulf region.
That mission will be the 16,000-ton civilian-manned Bay-class auxiliary RFA Lyme Bay (L3007), loaded up with lots of sorta ad-hoc bits and pieces, including the Video Ray Defender-Viper system, “four specialist mine-hunting vessels, three RHIBS, more than 20 containers packed full of tech,” and a skosh of good wishes.
20 May 2026 – HMS Stirling Castle is using their crane to load kit and equipment onto RFA Lyme Bay. RFA Lyme Bay receives a kit while in Gibraltar ahead of deployment to the Gulf. HMS Stirling Castle has transported and delivered kit, including drones and sea boats. The Bay-Class auxiliary ship is in Gibraltar, undergoing maintenance and loading vital kit for further operations.
A closer look at Video Ray
It really didn’t use to be this way.
Just 30 years ago, the circa 1996 RN, a victor of the Cold War, had five brand new 465-ton Sandown class Single Role Minehunters on hand with up to 20 planned as well as 13 aging (built in the late-1970s-mid-1980s) but still very useful 725-ton Hunt class minehunters.
There was also a backup.
At the time, four 700-ton River class sweepers, constructed in the mid-1980s, were being re-rated to patrol boats for the Northern Island Squadron. Eight additional Rivers were in reserve at Plymouth, with an eye towards disposal, even though they were not even a decade old. Speaking of reserve, 10 old Ton-class sweepers (including the experimental GRP-hulled HMS Wilton, M1116) were still “on the books” pending disposal and being used for training and Sea Cadet units, along with other roles.
No matter how you dice it, that’s more than a dozen very modern active boats, another dozen on the schedule, and a dozen more in reserve.
Ships of the British Royal Navy’s Third Mine Countermeasures Squadron briefly meet the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (left). The Faslane-based mine hunters HMS Invernes, Bridgeport, and Sandown (right), were accompanied by their support ship Royal Fleet Forward Repair Ship, Diligence (center front), and the survey ship HMS Herald (center rear). 13 March 1998, USN Photo by Jonathan Guzman, PH1.
Since then, of the 15 Sandowns eventually completed (down from the planned 20), all save for HMS Bangor have been passed on to overseas allies, and Bangor was only given a last-minute reprieve to keep her around for five years.
Similarly, while seven of the now very old 13 Hunts are still on the RN’s list, just four (Ledbury, Cattistock, Brocklesby, and Hurworth) of those are manned and in service; the others are either laid up or transferred aboard.
The Tons and Rivers are long gone, save for Wilton, which is a floating museum.
The British Hunt class minesweeper HMS Cattistock (M31) celebrated her 40th birthday in 2022 and is scheduled to remain in service until age 50.
Poor Jackie Fisher.