Two British minesweepers collided whereas alongside at Bahrain on Thursday, video footage and the Ministry of Defence confirms, with stage of injury noticed suggesting ships could also be out of motion for a while.
Two of the three Royal Navy minesweepers assigned to the Gulf seem out of service, fairly probably for a substantial time period, after a dramatic collision noticed HMS Chiddingfold energy into the flank of HMS Bangor whereas she lay alongside at Bahrain. While the reason for the collision has not but been revealed, video footage obtained of the incident by the MilitaryBanter-Fill Your Boots UK Twitter account exhibits Chiddingfold showing to speed up as she backed in direction of Bangor, no less than suggesting mechanical failure somewhat than operator error could have been responsible.
Breitbart News understands HMS Chiddingfold was trying to get underway however didn’t reply to helm instructions as anticipated, inflicting it to motor again in direction of land. UK Defence Journal cites a Royal Navy spokesman who acknowledged the collision had taken place. THey are reported to have mentioned: “We are aware of an incident concerning two Minehunters alongside in Bahrain. There are no casualties as a result of this incident and it would be inappropriate to comment further whilst investigations are ongoing.”
An investigation is forthcoming.
https://t.co/m1KMgNLhtt pic.twitter.com/2ZauWyBacw
— fill your boots (@MilitaryBanter) January 19, 2024
— fill your boots (@MilitaryBanter) January 19, 2024
An picture of the aftermath printed by the Fill Your Boots group exhibits the stays of the starboard aspect of HMS Bangor, a big gap torn by the hull by the strict of HMS Chiddingfold.
Unlike standard warships, minesweepers are designed to make use of as little ferrous metallic as attainable to scale back their magnetic signature, a vital high quality when detecting and coping with sea mines. Today minesweepers are constructed from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), however earlier generations have been constructed from aluminium and mahogany wooden, once more to make use of as little magnetic materials as attainable in building.
The GRP building is relatively fragile, nevertheless, and tough to restore. This was confirmed in 2021 when HMS Chiddingfold — once more in Bahrain — collided with HMS Penzance. The injury was estimated to run to £100,000 and took the ship out of service for 3 months. Britain has simply given two different minesweepers away to Ukraine.
The Royal Navy warships are based mostly in Bahrain as a part of a longstanding British dedication to serving to hold the Gulf open for commerce, together with the essential delivery of crude oil, by conserving the ocean lanes patrolled and away from mines. As the Royal Navy places it, that is essential to: “demonstrate our continued commitment to lasting peace in this troubled region, and to safeguard the flow of international trade.”
As nicely as the 2 minehunters concerned in this week’s collision there’s a third minesweeper HMS Middleton, frigate HMS Lancaster, and a Royal Fleet Auxilliary support ship RFA Cardigan Bay.
The deployment just isn’t immediately a part of the newly launched, U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, however runs parallel to it.
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