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Ex RNZN -Weathering the storm: Sharks, booze, hard times and other tales from a navy veteran

by John Currin
11 November 202311 November 2023

Helen Harvey05:00, Nov 11 2023

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFFGraeme Lowe, a New Zealand Navy veteran and RSA stalwart.

Being a long-term president of an RSA would seem a risky job for a recovering alcoholic. But Graeme Lowe made it work.

When he was president of the New Plymouth RSA he had a chat with all the bar staff and told them not to sell him alcohol under any circumstances, he says.

“Or anybody else coming up to try and buy it for me. And that worked well. Now and again you get the idiot who thinks it’s funny to try and sneak one over you. I’ve seen it happen.”

So, if he went away from a table for a bit, leaving a half-full glass, he’d tip it out when he got back, just to be sure, he says.

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He resigned as president at the end of 2018.

These days Lowe is stuck at home with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He got sick last December and was rushed to hospital.

“They threw me out to go home and die.”

He didn’t. And he intends to make it to his 77th birthday in May.

From his bed, Lowe’s line of vision goes to a picture on the wall of a ship he served on, HMNZS Royalist an anti-aircraft cruiser. In the 1960s Lowe did two tours of duty in Malaya with the New Zealand Navy.

He’s a navy man through and through. If he had his time again, he may not have gone in so young (he was 16) but he’d definitely still join up.

That’s where he started drinking.

“When you’re young, you’re bulletproof. You think. It was encouraged in them days, smoking, drinking.

“As long as you were at sea, cigarettes were tax-free. We used to get a beer issue as well as your rum issue at night. But you had to be 18 before you could draw your rum issue, same with beer. You had a few guys there that were teetotal.”

He’s been sober 36, going on 37 years. It’s something he’s rightfully proud of.

Temptation is always there, especially in the hot weather or when life gets a bit tough. But day to day he doesn’t usually miss it, he says.

“I didn’t like myself at all when I was drinking. I was, to be rather blunt, an a… on a merry-go-round that you can’t seem to get off. I was a slow learner, I went to treatment four or five times.”

His last stint in rehab was with the Bridge Programme in Wellington. That worked.

“The Sallies sent me out to Akatarawa on the road between Upper Hutt and Waikanae in the middle of nowhere. At first, I wasn’t too happy about that, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I was there close on five months.”

And ever since, he’s volunteered for the Bridge programme whenever able.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFFLowe has a picture of the HMNZS Royalist on the wall of his bedroom.

It took a lot of willpower to stay off alcohol and “I did everything wrong that they say you shouldn’t do”, he says.

Like join the RSA.

The first time he joined was many years ago when he was still in the navy. But, later when he moved away from Taranaki and lived all over New Zealand, he let it drop.

Then, back in New Plymouth again, he visited to find out about a cruiser reunion he wanted to attend.

He talked to reunion organiser Trevor Wylde, who wanted to know why Lowe wasn’t a member, Lowe says.

“I said, ‘I don’t drink, no point me being a member’. He more or less pulled me by the ear. How many people in here are drinking? It was quite surprising. About a dozen in there were just drinking lolly water. That’s when I rejoined again.”

He joined the New Plymouth RSA in 1996 and went on the committee in 2004. He was president at one stage until he had a heart attack. Then he was president again from July 2014 to November 2018.

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The RSA is still important, he says, there’s a comradeship there “exactly like you had in the services, which you don’t strike any other way in civilian street”.

“And it’s not like you think. You don’t go there and people are just telling war stories. Far from it. Even on ANZAC if you do hear war stories it’s not about blood and guts. It’s about the mischief the boys would get up to.”

Like the time the HMNZS Royalist broke down on the way back to New Zealand. It was the early 1960s and the ship had been in the Pacific and up to Singapore and Malaysia.

It was during what was called the Malaya confrontation, when Indonesia disagreed on the creation of the country of Malaysia.

The cruiser ended up drifting off the Solomon Islands, he says.

VANESSA LAURIE/STUFFIn the lounge is a painting of the three ships Lowe served on during his time in the New Zealand Navy – HMNZS Royalist, HMNZS Lachlan and HMNZS Rotoiti.

“The number of sharks in the water. If you went in there you wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.”

So, they had a fishing competition and dragged in about 90 in less than an hour. Some of them were huge, he says.

Lowe now has a grandson in the navy.

“He’s done bloody well, but I don’t want to embarrass the poor bugger.”

But talking about his grandson reminds him of another story.

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Lowe and a friend were the padre’s cleaners while on shore at Tāmaki, in Auckland, he says.

“Until we found out where he kept the communion wine.”

Portrait of an active fleet – snapshot of the Royal Navy surface fleet today

by John Currin
10 November 202311 November 2023

Despite a slew of concerning news stories about the struggles of the service in the last few months, the RN is currently maintaining a high tempo of ships at sea on operations. Here we summarise the key activities of the surface fleet and the purpose of their deployments.

Europe

After completion of phase one of the CSG23 deployment including a successful visit to Gothenburg in Sweden, HMS Queen Elizabeth returned to Portsmouth last week with her air group still on board. She spent 96 hrs alongside apparently repairing aircraft lift chain defects and taking on stores and fuel. She sailed on the 3rd November and resumed operating in the North Sea, now under direct NATO command for the first time. She is part of exercise Neptune Strike 23-3 which spans Europe and includes Spanish and Italian capital ships also under NATO control in the Mediterranean. NEST-3 is described as part of a regular series of exercises intended to be a “tangible demonstration of the power and capability of the NATO Alliance in multi-domain operations”. F-35s from the ship are also participating in air exercise Atlantic Trident 23 which includes US jets operating from RAF Lakenheath and French jets operating from RAF Waddington and Leeming.

QNLZ will be escorted by HMS Kent which joined the deployment after missing out on the initial phase due to mechanical issues. After a successful visit to Turku, Finland where the Prime Minister spent the night on board prior to the JEF nations summit, HMS Diamond also made a brief return to Portsmouth before rejoining the CSG. On arrival in the North Sea, the CSG conducted anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises with the small Norwegian submarine HNoMS Utstein, while the frigate HNoMS Otto Sverdrup rejoined the group. The second phase of the CSG23 deployment is expected to wrap up soon after the end of Neptune Strike on 10th November.

There has been plenty of bilateral activity with the UK’s increasingly close Norwegian allies as HMS Richmond is currently in Stavanger, (also recently visited by HMS Iron Duke) to make use of the NATO FORACS facility for calibrating warship weapons and sensors. HMS Somerset has also arrived in Norway where she is likely to embark the first load of Naval Strike Missiles direct from the Kongsberg factory and subsequently conduct the first RN fleet weapons trials of the system.

Elsewhere in the European theatre, HMS Portland has recently been operating out of Faslane, presumably conducting the unsung Towed Array Patrol Ship (TAPS) tasking on ASW duties in the North Atlantic.

Norwegian submarine HNoMS Utstein.

The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

There have been continued calls for the UK CSG to be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean but this option has not been taken for several good reasons. Although the media is currently fixated on events in Israel, the threat from Russia and the war in Ukraine remains of greatest consequence to the UK and Europe. Although nowhere near matching the firepower of US equivalents, retaining the UK CSG at high readiness in the European theatre makes sense. The US has the ‘big stick’ in the form of the Gerald R Ford CSG in the eastern Med and UK jets could also potentially operate from Cyprus if they were required to supplement US forces in combat operations of some kind.

The prime purpose of allied naval forces in the region is not so much to aid Israel but to ensure the conflict does not spread further and engulf the Middle East. Deterring Iran and its proxies from intervention is the priority and it should be noted that the decisive deployment of US carriers has been effective. So far the conflict between Israel and Hamas has not really spilled over beyond Israel’s borders. Until now at least, the actions of the Hezbollah Islamist terrorist group, on the northern borders of Israel have been relatively constrained, the deterrent sitting not far off the coast must be a major factor in their calculations.

There is also the threat from the south and the USS Dwight D Eisenhower CSG has now transited the Mediterranean into the Red Sea and is likely to either enter or sit outside the Persian Gulf, primarily as a deterrent to Iran. While in the Red Sea on October 21st, destroyer USS Carney also destroyed a number of drones and missiles believed to have been launched by Houthi forces from Yemen either at Israel or possibly the ship itself.

The UK Littoral Strike Group comprising RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay arrived off Cyprus in mid-October and have been alongside in Limassol for logistic support while they await developments. Their most likely role is in conducting evacuation of civilians or delivery of humanitarian aid should this be required. Hezbollah is believed to be in possession of Iranian Noor C-802 and Russian Onyx anti-ship missiles (with ranges of 120km and 300km respectively). The auxiliaries carry Phalanx CIWS for limited self-defence (mustering 3 mounts between the two of them) but would very much need the protection of high-end air defence platforms, especially if deployed any closer to the coast of Lebanon or Israel.

The flaw in the Littoral Response Group concept was always the lack of available escorts. RFA Argus (left) sails from Gibraltar on 15th October carrying 3 Merlin Mk4 helicopters while a company of Royal Marines is embarked on RFA Lyme Bay (right).

HMS Duncan sailed from Portsmouth on 18th June and has been operating in the Mediterranean as the flagship of Standing NATO Group 2. (Apart from a two-week break in September to undertake repairs in Rota, Spain). She may now have detached from the NATO group and was briefly alongside in Limassol, presumably joining the LRG. The Type 45 destroyer is especially suited to this kind of role and would also be a valuable asset to the US forces.

It should be noted that there is still some Russian naval activity in the Eastern Mediterranean complicating the picture. Due to the lack of access to its Black Sea bases and inadequate facilities in Syria, all the Russian conventional submarines deployed in the theatre since 2021 have been forced to withdraw to the Baltic Sea bases for maintenance. It is believed an RN Astute class boat has been deployed to the Mediterranean equipped with Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles.

If the conflict in Israel continues for some time this will not be a problem for the RFAs that are set up to rotate crews periodically and the LRG was intended to be overseas for a long period anyway. Extending HMS Duncan’s time in the Med would be harder on her ship’s company as the Type 45s do not routinely rotate personnel. She is due home before Christmas and the RN generally tries to avoid exceeding deployments lasting 6 months. There is no Type 45 immediately ready to relieve her. HMS Dauntless is in the US while HMS Diamond is deployed with the CSG but has a reputation for being particularly mechanically unreliable. HMS Daring, Dragon and Defender are at very low readiness in Portsmouth in various stages of ‘PIPKeep’ refits.

In the Persian Gulf HMS Lancaster continues to work hard as the forward-deployed frigate while RFA Cardigan Bay is based in Bahrain with minehunters HMS Middleton, Chiddingfold and Bangor.

Atlantic

HMS Prince of Wales has completed the second phase of Westlant 23 off the US coast with the completion of F-35 Developmental Test Flying, part 3 (DT-3). This has included further trials with the F-35 carrying heavier weapon loads and in more extreme weather conditions. 60 (SRVL) rolling landings were conducted, including 10 at night. Other trials included 20 backwards landings (aircraft coming in facing towards the stern) and nearly 150 take-offs by day and night in various weather conditions and sea states. Aspects of these serials are likely classified and it will be interesting to see what details may emerge into the public domain. It should be noted that Westlant 23 is not an operational deployment but is focused on developing aviation capability for the carriers and improving interoperability with US forces. PWLS will now return to Naval Station Norfolk before commencing phase three of the tasking which will include experiments with the Mojave RPAS and other uncrewed aircraft trials later this month.

Personnel of the Integrated Test Force pose for a team photo on completion of DT-3 on board HMS Prince of Wales.

HMS Dauntless has completed her time in the Caribbean. She was primarily sent in order to be ready to provide disaster relief assistance, should one of the islands be struck by a hurricane. The hurricane season is now drawing to a close and the region appears to have escaped a serious incident this year. Dauntless has also been employed on defence engagement visits and on counter-narcotics patrols. Working with the US Coastguard she has been involved in anti-smuggling operations, intercepting drugs with a total value of around £200M. Dauntless is now alongside in Charleston, South Carolina and may later meet up with PWLS.

HMS Medway will return to the Caribbean (Atlantic Patrol Task (North)) in the coming weeks as she has been deployed in the Falklands since February while HMS Forth was refitting in Gibraltar. HMS Forth has completed refit and received the dazzle paint scheme already applied to sisters HMS Tamar and Spey. She is making her way south at the time of writing along with HMS Protector, also heading to the South Atlantic ready for the summer season in Antarctica.

Navy carries out another multi-carrier exercise, this time with Japan in the Philippine Sea

by John Currin
10 November 202310 November 2023

ALEX WILSON

STARS AND STRIPES • November 7, 2023

An MH-60S Seahawk helicopter prepares to land aboard the USS Ronald Reagan during a multi-carrier exercise in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.

An MH-60S Seahawk helicopter prepares to land aboard the USS Ronald Reagan during a multi-carrier exercise in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

ABOARD USS CARL VINSON IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA — The roar and rumble of fighter jets began early Sunday and carried on steadily through the night, part of a joint U.S.-Japan drill meant to showcase the two nations as a “cornerstone of peace and deterrence” in the region.

Dubbed a “multiple large deck event” by the Navy, the exercise included the aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson, the Japanese helicopter carrier JS Hyuga, approximately 150 aircraft and more than 10,000 sailors in a demonstration of air and naval power in the Indo-Pacific.

But despite its scale, the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force repeatedly emphasized the training’s routine nature.

“The capabilities that you will see — and will not see — assembled here is indeed impressive; it is also somewhat routine,” Rear Adm. Pat Hannifin, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, told reporters gathered Monday aboard the Ronald Reagan. “We can, and do, bring together bilateral and multilateral forces of this size, breadth and capability many times each year across the Indo-Pacific.”

Scheduled to run until an undisclosed time this week, the exercise began Saturday about 500 to 700 nautical miles east of Luzon, Philippines, Carrier Strike Group 5 spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Seth Koenig told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday.

That places the flotilla roughly 800 nautical miles southeast of Taiwan.

The aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson sail in formation with destroyers and cruisers during training in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.

The aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson sail in formation with destroyers and cruisers during training in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

China often criticizes U.S.-led exercises in the Philippine Sea and the adjacent South China Sea as aggressive and counteractive to peace in the region. Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea as its territorial waters.

The U.S. and Japan, on the other hand, say their presence preserves freedom of movement through the area.

The issue is a case of the “eye of the beholder,” Hannifin said, adding that both the U.S. and Japan have been operating and training in the region for decades.

“To fly, sail and operate everywhere that international law allows is what ensures that flying, sailing and operating and free trade across this region is maintained,” he told reporters. “I would suggest it is not, certainly not, provocation. This is a standard and a normal exercise of our individual nations’ capabilities.”

Hannifin added that the exercise is not aimed at deterring any specific nation, but rather to indicate the capabilities of the U.S. and its allies to “any potential adversary, regardless of who they are.”

Rear Adm. Pat Hannifin, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, speaks to reporters aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.

Rear Adm. Pat Hannifin, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, speaks to reporters aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, along with two destroyers, a frigate and a support ship, were operating several hundred miles away in the South China Sea as of Sunday, Japan’s Joint Staff said in a news release Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, the flight decks and below-decks hangars on the Ronald Reagan and Carl Vinson were buzzing with activity.

Pilots flew scores of sorties aimed at honing air-defense and air-combat skills while the escort warships practiced coordinated maneuvers and maritime strike drills. Meanwhile, U.S. and Japanese sailors swapped places to learn more about their counterparts.

That pace hardly slowed as night fell on Sunday. Aboard the Carl Vinson, F-18 Super Hornet and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets continued to launch and land, while mechanics labored away in the ship’s massive hangar.

Exercises like this are “demanding,” but the crew is more than capable of handling it, Petty Officer 2nd Class Rowland Smith told Stars and Stripes aboard the Carl Vinson on Sunday.

“A big challenge is definitely the temperature,” he said, referring to the hot and humid hangars he works in.

An F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter catapults from the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson during a multi-carrier exercise in the Philippine Sea, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023.

An F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter catapults from the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson during a multi-carrier exercise in the Philippine Sea, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)

Multi-carrier exercises aren’t new, but they are relatively rare when compared to other drills.

The day before the ships rendezvoused in the Philippine Sea, the USS Gerald R. Ford — the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier — and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower concluded drills in the Mediterranean Sea. The carriers and their strike groups trained Nov. 1-3 alongside two Italian frigates.

Previous multi-carrier exercises include a June 9 drill between the Ronald Reagan and the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and the Japanese helicopter destroyer JS Izumo joined with Canadian and French warships for another multiple large deck event in the Philippine Sea.

China, at the time, deployed a Y-9 cargo plane fitted with surveillance equipment to the area, where it “likely tracked, monitored and gathered intelligence” on the exercise, the Chinese state-sponsored Global Times news website reported June 11, citing analysts.

author picture

ALEX WILSON

Alex Wilson covers the U.S. Navy and other services from Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. Originally from Knoxville, Tenn., he holds a journalism degree from the University of North Florida. He previously covered crime and the military in Key West, Fla., and business in Jacksonville, Fla.

A sea change for Auckland’s event schedule

by John Currin
10 November 202310 November 2023

Moana Auckland will run for the first time from February 24 to March 24 next year. Photo: Supplied

The council-controlled organisation in charge of events in Auckland hopes to make waves with an annual month-long ocean festival

There are hopes that a new yearly festival focused on Auckland’s marine sector will give Auckland Council’s events arm a more sustainable and reliable pipeline of events.

The first Moana Auckland, a month-long lineup of sea-faring events, will run from February 24 to March 24 in 2024.

Events such as the Auckland Boat Show, Z Manu World Champs, New Zealand Millennium Cup superyacht regatta, Sculpture on the Gulf, Harbour Classic and the new Wooden Boat Festival will take place at the same time, with a fan hub at the Viaduct.

Though the event hopes to bring in millions of dollars for the region and boost Auckland’s booming maritime industry, the event organisers say it also represents a big shift towards the kind of events the region relies on.

Former Tall Black Chris Simpson, the head of major events at the council-controlled Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, said over the last decade or so the organisation has relied too heavily on major events that are one-off boosts to tourism and the economy, but don’t repeat and take years to plan.

He should know – he was part of the team that started the bid for New Zealand to share the FIFA Women’s World Cup with Australia. That work began in 2008.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited head of major events Chris Simpson at the announcement of the event. Photo: Matthew Scott

Major event planning is a long-term game, Simpson said. At the moment, organisers are already looking at 2025 and beyond.

It’s also one that’s grown steeply more competitive in recent years, with New Zealand trying to match bids with Australian states that have had less budgetary constraints since the pandemic.

“Competition really heightened after our lockdown, particularly with the Australian states, who were investing in the tens of millions,” Simpson said. “It became very hard. Then others increased their hosting fee, so it all became more and more challenging.”

With last year’s annual budget from Auckland Council reducing funds to the organisation by $34.5 million and the Covid-prompted Regional Events Fund due to run out next year, the team at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited have had to rethink how they operate.

Simpson said they looked to Australia and saw how Melbourne and Sydney had a stable lineup of events that attracted visitors to the city every year.

“For us to be serious about growing global events, we need to look over the ditch and see how Australia does it,” Simpson said. “The answer is having seasonal anchor events… we should have been doing this however many years ago.”

He pointed to Vivid Sydney and the Australian Open in Melbourne as the kind of annual events Auckland should aspire to.

This year, 3.28 million people attended the Sydney festival of lights and music, which has been running for 12 years, and the Australian Open has brought crowds to Melbourne every January for 118 years.

Simpson is hoping Moana Auckland can have similar longevity.

“We looked at what kind of events can we really grow… that have a commitment for them to be here for 50 years,” he said. “And what are our points of difference? One of the lowest-hanging fruits is we are globally known for our ocean.”

The event was formally launched at the New Zealand Royal Yacht Squadron at Westhaven Marina.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown brought his own regatta – a shirt emblazoned with multi-coloured yachts.

He told the crowd the festival would be a celebration of what made Auckland a great city to live in.

“To celebrate our connection as a city with the water is the absolute right thing to do and I congratulate Tātaki on doing this,” he said. “It is the right thing, I’ve been on and on about how we need to do more with our harbour.”

As a sailing and surfing fan, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown was enthusiastic about the event. Photo: Matthew Scott

Brown said if you went to the bottom of Queen Street and turned left, you’d find yourself in the “essence of a wonderful city” but if you turned right you’d be in “an industrial part of Czechoslovakia”.

It’s a reference to Brown’s floated idea of turning the land that the Ports of Auckland sits on into publicly useable recreation space.

New Zealand Maritime Industry Association executive director Peter Busfield said the Viaduct was the product of investment in Auckland’s maritime sector – a move being repeated by this festival.

“Going back to the year 2000, when you walked down the bottom of Queen Street and you turned left, it was Czechoslovakia also – a storage of timber of petroleum tanks,” he said. “It was actually for the America’s Cup and legislation that bypassed resource consent and built the Viaduct Harbour in a matter of 18 months, and now tourists coming to Auckland will spend three or four days there, whereas in the year 2000 they spent eight hours.”

Busfield said events meant more than the event itself – but have widespread impacts for adjacent sectors and create jobs.

“They provide lifeblood for a city in bringing international guests and provide growth… it will bring focus on New Zealand from international travellers and around the country, and indeed the marine industry itself – we’re in pretty good stead, we just need to continue to promote – and this will certainly help us.”

Over 40 percent of New Zealand’s $3 billion maritime industry operates out of Auckland.

Preliminary numbers from Tātaki Auckland Unlimited expect the festival to generate $27m for Auckland. This is projected to increase to $40m in 2025.

Most of the events under the new banner already exist, but Simpson said the connection of them all by brand and by timeframe would pay dividends.

“Already there were a lot of content and events that were all acting independently, so we’ve brought them all for one period of time,” he said. “That’s so we can target the eastern seaboard of Australia – there’s the wooden boat show… maybe the boat show on a week later.”

The hope is these visitors would decide to stay for a while – and then maybe keep on coming back.

Simpson said a yearly event is a stepping stone towards building a sustainable events schedule that can be counted on.

“Going back to the strategy, we have been a bit remiss really – the planning for big events has to go beyond election cycles and yearly budgets,” he said. “And if we can make Moana Auckland a globally known event, we can have events come to us.”

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s new strategy is investing in fewer events, but making sure they are major anchor events.

Simpson said the new threshold a regional event needed to exceed was generating at least $3m for the region.

Royal Navy frigate shadows Russian warship through English Channel

by John Currin
10 November 202310 November 2023

8th November 2023 at 11:27am

Admiral Grigorovich as seen from HMS Richmond (Picture: Royal Navy)

A Royal Navy frigate has been shadowing a Russian warship through the English Channel during the stormy conditions of Storm Ciarán.

Plymouth-based HMS Richmond tracked Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich in waters close to the UK, keeping constant watch of her in the North Sea and maintaining permanent contact.

The Type 23 frigate had been in Norway for Nato trials and training when she left to monitor the Sevastopol-based vessel, which is part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

HMS Richmond's Commanding Officer monitoring Admiral Grigorovich — HMS Richmond’s Commanding Officer monitors the Russian frigate (Picture: Royal Navy)

After first monitoring the Russian ship in the North Sea, HMS Richmond’s 185-strong crew continued to shadow Grigorovich through the Strait of Dover and down towards the Mediterranean.

Commander Chris L’Amie, HMS Richmond’s Commanding Officer, said monitoring Russian ships close to UK waters “encourages their compliance with maritime law and deters malign activity”.

“The English Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes,” he said.

“By maintaining a visible and persistent presence, the Royal Navy is demonstrating our steadfast commitment to the Nato alliance and maintaining maritime security, which is crucial to our national interests.”

Head of Royal Canadian Navy Outlines Ottawa’s Pacific Strategy

by John Currin
10 November 202310 November 2023

By: John Grady

November 7, 2023 4:15 PM • Updated: November 8, 2023 10:30 AM

USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) and His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ottawa (FFH-341) conduct a replenishment-at-sea with the USNS Yukon (T-AO-202) in the South China Sea, Sept. 25, 2023. US Navy Photo

Canada is sending three frigates a year and a replenishment vessel into the Western Pacific as part of Ottawa’s new strategy, its top admiral said Friday.

Vice Adm. Angus Topshee acknowledged the “tyranny of distance” in making the commitment to the region.

“Canada is a Pacific nation,” he said.
“We’ve shifted the weight of our presence to the Pacific.”

Topshee added instead of the seven sailing days it takes for Canadian warships to reach operating stations in the Atlantic it takes three times as long to do that in the Pacific.

Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies online event, Topshee cited the recent transit of the Taiwan Strait by its HMCS Ottawa (FFH-341) and USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115) as an example of Canada’s commitment to the “rules-based international order” to ensure the free flow of trade through international waters.

While the two vessels were trailed by a number of Chinese ships through the strait, they transited without incident. A submarine-hunting helicopter from Ottawa, however, was intercepted by fighters Sunday that fired flares to drive off the Canadian aircraft flying in international airspace. It was the second such incident involving Canadian military helicopters and Chinese fighters in recent days.

Topshee called the incident “very dangerous” and was part of a pattern of Chinese aerial harassment that the United States brought to light several weeks ago.

“We don’t have a natural region of the world” to concentrate security interests and forces. “We’re surrounded by three oceans and the United States is to our south.”

Calling the U.S. “Canada’s closest ally,” he outlined a division of emphasis in the roles and missions of Canada’s armed forces.

The Canadian Army is concentrating on possible European land warfare as part of its NATO commitment. The Royal Canadian Air Force is tied closely to the United States in the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The Royal Canadian Navy looks to the Pacific.

“We think the Indo-Pacific is a maritime theater” for the movement of trade, potential source of energy and important minerals and its fisheries.

Before assuming Canada’s top naval post, Topshee served as commander of Maritime Forces Pacific. He pointed to Canada’s recently released policy paper on the Pacific as to the role of the navy in that region in places like the Taiwan Strait.

“Canada will also continue to work with partners to push back against any unilateral actions that threaten the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the East and South China Seas.”

In the discussion, Topshee cited Canada’s Harry de Wolf-class offshore patrol vessels as important assets in meeting new missions with island nations’ coast guards in protecting their fisheries and increasing maritime awareness in the Pacific. The class can also operate as icebreakers in the Far North.

On the Arctic, Topshee said, “We don’t anticipate a war in the Arctic or over the Arctic.” He ruled out the Northwest Passage as a viable sea route for now for ocean-to-ocean commerce. “The Northern Sea Route is more accessible,” but closer to Russia. He added that 22 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product comes from its mining of Arctic minerals and energy development. It also is a region where Moscow has built military facilities for its land and air forces and continued to expand its icebreaking fleet.

By contrast, “There are only 200,000 Canadians living” in the region, he said The largest locality has a population of 7,000. As for development, there is large iron ore mine operating and some diamond mining in the Canadian Arctic, he said.

For Canadian armed forces, Topshee said the “Arctic is an expeditionary theater.” He added its deep water port “is not like Singapore” where a ship can refuel and pick up provisions. “Everything we need in the north, we have to bring with us.”

Under those conditions, “basing is a challenge.” Topshee added the Canadian Navy is looking at dual-use facilities in the Arctic rather than building something for its own use.

Navy to Award Long-Delayed Overhaul Contract for USS Boise in 2024

by John Currin
10 November 202310 November 2023

By: Mallory Shelbourne

November 7, 2023 6:54 PM • Updated: November 7, 2023 8:06 PM

An undated photo of USS Bosie (SSN-764). US Navy Photo

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Navy will issue an award to overhaul an attack submarine that has sat idle for years next year, a service official said Tuesday.

USS Boise (SSN-764) has sat idle at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding since 2020 after losing its dive certificate in 2017 due to a backlog at the public shipyards.

“We are officially going to award, contract, to start the [engineering overhaul] officially in early calendar year 24,” Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, the program executive officer for attack submarines, said at the annual Naval Submarine League symposium,

“And we’ve worked with Newport News to lay out a contract schedule and a plan that gets us that boat back at the right time to get the right operational availability … and multiple deployments in support of what Adm. Houston needs,” Rucker added, referring to Naval Submarine Forces commander Vice Adm. Bill Houston.

The impending contract award in 2024 comes as Boise‘s overhaul has been delayed nearly a decade due to logjams at the public shipyards. Due to aircraft carriers and ballistic-missile submarines getting priority at the public yards, the attack submarines have faced years of maintenance delays.

After Boise lost its dive certification in 2017, the Navy opted to contract a private yard to perform the maintenance overhaul. The Los Angeles-class attack submarine first entered Newport News in 2020, but has been waiting for its engineering overhaul for more than three years.

Rucker said the Navy is cutting down on the days of maintenance delays for the attack boats, but still has a ways to go.

“Since 2019, for attack submarines, we’ve decreased the days of maintenance delays by over 30 percent. Not where we need to be yet, but we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.

At last year’s conference, Rucker said the service had averaged 1,500 to 1,600 days of maintenance delays in Fiscal Year 2019, but brought that number down to about 1,100 days for FY 2022. At the time, Rucker said the service wants that number to decrease to 700 days by FY 2026.

Available material for when the Navy starts maintenance availabilities on attack submarines remains the same as it was last year: 40 to 50 percent. But with help from lawmakers and across the supply chain, the Navy is still working toward a goal of 90 percent by 2026.

“We’ve improved on time performance, if you look across planning and modernization, from 18 months ago when I took the job, we were less than 50 percent for those two things. Today we’re at 92 and 96 percent,” he said.

The Navy is still trying to increase the percentage of operationally available attack submarines, but is currently at about 64 to 67 percent, Rucker said.

Naval Sea Systems Command officials have noted the service’s difficulty in getting attack submarines out of maintenance on time.

“Over the last ten years, 20 to 30 percent [came] out on time,” former NAVSEA command chief Vice Adm. Bill Galinis said last year.

The third USS Charleston (C-22/CA-19) was a United States Navy St. Louis-class protected cruiser. She was launched 23 January 1904 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, sponsored by Miss Helen Whaley Rhett, and commissioned on 17 October 1905, Captain Cameron McRae Winslow in command. She was reclassified CA-19 on 17 July 1920.

by John Currin
9 November 20239 November 2023

Protected cruiser USS Charleston (C-22) passing through the Gaillard (late Culebra) Cut of the Panama Canal, 1917. Decommissioned in 1923, she was sold in 1930 and spent the next 30 years as a floating breakwater in British Columbia. She was eventually run ashore and abandoned.

Pre-World War I

Charleston cruised to South American ports in the summer of 1906 with Secretary of State Elihu Root on board for good-will visits, and after disembarking the official party at Panama in September, returned to the west coast for overhaul. She cleared San Francisco on 6 December 1906 to begin service with the Pacific Squadron, sailing along the west coast from Magdalena Bay, Mexico, to Esquimalt, British Columbia, on exercises and fleet maneuvers until 10 June 1908, when she entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard to prepare for the long passage to the Asiatic Squadron.^[4] During this time, Charleston stopped in Portland, Oregon in June 1907 for the annual Portland Rose Festival. Charleston was the first U.S. Navy ship to attend the event, a tradition the Navy continues participate in to this day.^[5]

Leaving Puget Sound on 28 October 1908, Charleston served in the Far East until 11 September 1910, first as flagship of 3rd Squadron, Pacific Fleet, and later, as flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. Based on Cavite, Philippines in the winter, the Fleet moved north each summer to Chefoo, China, to continue exercises and visits to ports of China, Japan, Manchuria, and Russia, presenting a powerful reminder of American interest in the Far East. Returning to Bremerton, Washington, Charleston was decommissioned on 8 October 1910 at Puget Sound.^[4]

Placed in commission in reserve on 14 September 1912, Charleston joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet, remaining at Puget Sound as a receiving ship through early 1916, aside from a voyage to San Francisco in October 1913 as flagship for the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Reserve Fleet. From 1912 through early 1916, she was receiving ship at the yard. With a new assignment as tender for the submarines based in the Panama Canal Zone, Charleston arrived at Cristobal, C.Z. on 7 May 1916, for a year of operations with submarines, reconnaissance of anchorages, and gunnery exercises.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Charleston_(C-22)

Alabama (BB-8) was an Illinois-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy. She was the second ship of her class, and the second to carry her name.

by John Currin
9 November 20239 November 2023

As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were replaced by cage masts in 1909

Her keel was laid down in December 1896 at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard, and she was launched in May 1898. She was commissioned into the fleet in October 1900. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13-inch (330 mm) guns and she had a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).

Alabama spent the first seven years of her career in the North Atlantic Fleet conducting peacetime training. In 1904, she made a visit to Europe and toured the Mediterranean. She took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet until damage to her machinery forced her to leave the cruise in San Francisco. She instead completed a shorter circumnavigation in company with the battleship Maine. The ship received an extensive modernization from 1909 to 1912, after which she was used as a training ship in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She continued in this role during World War I. After the war, Alabama was stricken from the naval register and allocated to bombing tests that were conducted in September 1921. She was sunk in the tests by US Army Air Service bombers and later sold for scrap in March 1924.

Description[edit]

Main article: Illinois-class battleship

Design work on the Illinois class of pre-dreadnought battleships began in 1896, at which time the United States Navy had few modern battleships in service. Initial debate over whether to build a new low-freeboard design like the Indiana-class battleships in service or a higher-freeboard vessel like Iowa (then under construction) led to a decision to adopt the latter type. The mixed secondary armament of 6 and 8 in (152 and 203 mm) guns of previous classes was standardized to just 6-inch weapons to save weight and simplify ammunition supplies. Another major change was the introduction of modern, balanced turrets with sloped faces instead of the older “Monitor”-style turrets of earlier American battleships.^[1]

Alabama was 374 feet (114 m) long overall and had a beam of 72 ft 3 in (22.02 m) and a draft of 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m). She displaced 11,565 long tons (11,751 t) as designed and up to 12,250 long tons (12,450 t) at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW), driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which were ducted into a pair of funnels placed side by side. The propulsion system generated a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were replaced by cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 536 officers and enlisted men, which increased to 690–713.^[2]

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13 in (330 mm)/35 caliber guns^[a] in two twin-gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 6 in (152 mm)/40 caliber Mark IV guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried sixteen 6-pounder guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull and six 1-pounder guns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, Alabama carried four 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes in deck mounted launchers.^[2]

Alabama‘s main armored belt was 16.5 in (419 mm) thick over the magazines and the propulsion machinery spaces and 4 in (102 mm) elsewhere. The main battery gun turrets had 14-inch (356 mm) thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had 15 in (381 mm) of armor plating on their exposed sides. Armor that was 6 in thick protected the secondary battery. The conning tower had 10 in (254 mm) thick sides

USS Boise (CL-47) was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn class in the United States Navy. The cruiser was named for Boise, the capital city of the state of Idaho.

by John Currin
9 November 20239 November 2023

USS Boise 1938
Commissioned in 1938, she saw extensive service during World War II, taking part in fighting in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters. Following the war the ship was decommissioned in 1946 and lay idle until sold to Argentina in 1951. Renamed Nueve de Julio, the ship remained in service with the Argentinian Navy until 1978, after which she was taken to Brownsville, Texas and scrapped in 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Boise_(CL-47)

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