HMS Medway Offshore Patrol Vessel P223 officially commissioned by British Navy.

The HMS Medway Offshore Patrol Vessel (P223) has been officially welcomed into the Royal British Navy with her Commissioning Ceremony that was held on Chatham Dockyard, September 19, 2019. The new warship – the second of the five Batch 2 River class OPVs – welcomed guests and the families of the ship’s company for the service and for tours of the ship, while locals lined the banks to watch the ceremony in the sunshine.

HMS Medway Offshore Patrol Vessel (P223) (Picture source British Royal Navy)

Commander Ben Power, the ship’s commanding officer, said: “It is special to be commissioning this ship here on the River Medway, an area that has an incredibly strong connection with the Royal Navy going back to the 16th Century.

The HMS Medway and the new OPVs provide much greater capability, including a flight deck, increased top speed and longer endurance at sea. The better endurance of HMS Medway and her fellow class ships means they can be deployed overseas as well as in home waters.

They will undertake a variety of roles, including counter-terrorism, anti-smuggling, maritime defense and counter-narcotics as well as securing the UK’s borders and protecting UK interests around the globe.

The first steel for HMS Medway was cut by BAE Systems in June 2015 in Glasgow. The ship’s company then moved on board in May 2019 and the ship first sailed in June, joining her sister ship HMS Forth in Portsmouth.

The HMS Medway then began sea trials that were completed in just 75 days which according to naval records is the shortest time since World War II.

The Batch 2 OPV program of five state-of the art vessels represents a British Ministry of Defense investment of £648m providing 800 jobs for Clyde shipyard BAE workers; retaining their skills whilst demonstrating new production processes vital to the production of the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 Frigates. All five Batch 2 OPV’s are to be delivered to the Royal Navy by 2021.

The HMS Medway is a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel, she was the second Batch 2 River-class vessel to be commissioned. The River class is a class of offshore patrol vessels built primarily for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. A total of nine are planned for the Royal Navy; four Batch 1 and five Batch 2.

In 2014, BAE Systems has signed a contract with the British Government to build the ships at their BAE Systems Maritime – Naval Ships shipyards in Glasgow on the River Clyde. According to BAE Systems, the vessels are designed to deploy globally, conducting anti-piracy, counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling tasks currently conducted by frigates and destroyers.

The Batch 2 ships are fundamentally different in appearance and capabilities from the preceding Batch 1. Notable differences include the 90.5 meters long hull, a top speed of 24 knots (44 km/h), Merlin-capable flight deck, a displacement of around 2,000 tones and greatly expanded capacity for accommodating troops. The Batch 2 ships also have a different (full width) superstructure, and a fundamentally different above-water hullform shape (greater bow flare, different & less-pronounced forward knuckle line compared to the Batch 1 ships, lack of the distinctive fwd & aft bulwarks of the Batch 1 vessels). The class is also fitted with the Kelvin Hughes SharpEye integrated radar system for navigation, the Terma Scanter 4100 2D radar for air and surface surveillance, and a BAE CMS-1 Combat Management System.

The HMS Medway Offshore Patrol Vessel is armed with one 30 mm cannon, 2 x Miniguns and 2 x General purpose machine guns.