Retirement dates given for Royal Navy Portsmouth ships as government "constantly reviews" fleet availability
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Out-of-service dates have been announced for three Royal Navy warships.
Minister for defence readiness and industry Luke Pollard has given provisional out-of-service dates for three River-class offshore patrol vessels. The trio, part of Batch 1, are HMS Tyne, Severn, and Mersey.
The Royal Navy is hastening its progress towards modernisation, with modern Type 26 and 31 frigates currently in production. Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked in a parliamentary written question what recent has been made of the potential merits of replacing the Royal Navy’s batch 1 offshore patrol vessels.
Mr Pollard responded: “The Royal Navy constantly reviews out-of-service dates to achieve maximum availability of its platforms for operational tasking. For operational security reasons, the Royal Navy does not release the out-of-service dates of individual platforms.
“The class out-of-service date for OPV Batch 1 is 2028. The Royal Navy continues to assess its future capability requirements in accordance with the Strategic Defence Review and the Defence Investment Plan.”
What are these Batch 1 patrol vessels and how are they used?
Initially ordered from Vosper Thornycroft in early 2001, the Batch 1 vessels were procured to replace the Island-class ships. Their capability of being available for up to 300 days a year was attractive to the government, so they could perform the duties of the five ships they were replacing.
After initially leasing the vessels, the Ministry of Defence bought them in September 2012 for £39m. The original procurement included HMS Tyne, Mersey, and Clyde. Then parliamentary undersecretary for defence Harriet Baldwin said in 2017 that HMS Severn would be decommissioned in 2017, with Mersey and Clyde being retired in 2019.
The formed was decommissioned in a ceremony at HMNB Portsmouth on October 27. 2017. Despite these plans, £12.7m was allocated in March 2018 to maintain the three Batch 1 ships, with an announcement in November stating they would be retained in service. HMS Clyde was transferred to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force in August 2020, and renamed Al Zubara.
HMS Tyne, Mersey, and Severn, are part of the offshore division of the Coastal Forces Squadron. They retain a pivotal role in patrolling UK waters and being on hand to respond to various incidents.