Royal Navy showcases Archer-class patrol vessel HMS Ranger.

Royal Navy's Archer-class patrol vessel HMS Ranger is present for the first time at DSEI, Defence and Security Equipment International which took place 14-17 September in London.

Archer-class patrol vessel HMS Ranger at DSEI 2021 (Picture source: Navy Recognition)

HMS Ranger is an Archer-class patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy, based in HMNB Portsmouth. She is affiliated to Sussex and Brighton Universities' University Royal Naval Unit (or SUSURNU), which has its offices at the University of Sussex, Brighton. Her badge is a ship's wheel superimposed on seven blue roundels, representing the seven seas.

The Archer class (or P2000) is a class of patrol and training vessel in service with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, commonly referred to as a Fast Training Boat. Most are assigned to University Royal Naval Units, although HMS Tracker and HMS Raider are armed and provide maritime force protection to high-value shipping in the Firth of Clyde and are most commonly employed as escorts for submarines transiting to Faslane. Pursuer and Dasher are also armed and provide maritime force protection operating with the Gibraltar Squadron.

They are twin-shaft vessels with molded glass-reinforced plastic hulls of 54 tonnes displacement and are armed with Oerlikon 20 mm cannon.

The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many versions are still in use today.