HMS Tamar has emerged from her recent maintenance period at A&P Falmouth with a new ‘dazzle’ paint scheme. This form of warship camouflage dates back to the First World war and makes visual warship recognition more difficult.
The dazzle paint comprises 4 different shades of grey and over 200 litres of paint were used on HMS Tamar. This has more than just the obvious PR value, there is some minor operational advantage to be gained and several other navies around the world that conduct littoral operations make use of this camouflage. The ship can obviously be detected on radar or via infra-red sensors but when seen visually, the paint scheme helps break up the shape of the vessel. The dazzle effect is most effective in disguising a ship when on the horizon or when against the background of a shoreline, particularly at dawn or dusk.
The Cornish and Devonian Lion image derived from the ship’s crest has been re-applied to the ship’s side and Tamar will continue to be the most distinctive OPV in the fleet. The Commander of the Overseas Patrol Squadron has said the intention is to repaint all the Batch II OPVs in this way.
Prior to her maintenance period (and new paint scheme)HMS Tamar and Royal Marines of 42 Commando conducted experiments with the Take on Gravity Jet Suit for potential use in boarding operations.
It would have looked even more dazzling with a hanger!
Well said
Would also mean cost for air support, plus weapons etc and spare’s part’s.
It wouldn’t always have to carry a lynx as it certainly won’t need to for local opv tasks, but a permanent hanger would be more versatile for uavs etc. I guess the plan is to containerise them and use them as a make shift hanger even if there is no room to swing a cat inside them.
Maybe that’s why we building Type 31/32 helo in the cost frame operations, while the River’s patrol.
Why don’t we send all of our ships to sea with no helicopters and weapons then: it’ll save a fortune!
These ships cost £630m and were supposed to release frigates from patrol, interdiction, search and rescue, disaster relief and anti-piracy missions. The lack of a hangared helicopter means they are of no use for pretty much all of those missions.
We should have built 4 ships for the same money instead of 5 but with hangars and kept HMS Clyde.
That’s interesting. The USN decided the Burkes didn’t need helicopters and then changed their minds sensibly. But I can’t see why T45 needs a hangar. It will always be at the centre of a task group. Far better for them to have an extra VLS back aft. And imagine them with 76mm covering all arcs. I could even see in an alternative universe two sub classes of T45 one with and one without a hangar.
I could never understand why B1 Rivers were purchased with out a flight deck.
‘Far better for them to have an extra VLS back aft”
They could be as its the side bays that take the space, the Canadians and others have the VLS around the outside structure and not below deck
They are really big. On my first visit to Daring I thought I would never get across the flightdeck……… 🙂
Well, a helo can still land on a B2, even though a helo is not permanently housed on them! This does not really prevent the B2s preforming the OPV role. B2 a good platform for marines with Jet Packs to operate from.
I am sure a tent could be erected on the deck if necessary if a helo is needed for longer periods.
Don’t forget, B2 ist also a great platform for marines with teleporters to operate from!
Did you see the Jet Pack trial?
If so, if so what did you think?
I think was from a OPV.
I will try find the video again!
Here it is Sebastian:
YouTube.com/watch?v=suHOLFhbwsM
Very useful indeed!
The River’s already patrolling, HMS Medway did a drug bust, search and rescue these ship’s can use active sonar all day long plus use other asset, like plane’s, DR eg Medway, ANTI-PIR is the same as patrolling eg intel gathering if the River’s can’t do the job call in bigger asset’s.
Jesus Christ, please use apostrophes correctly.
Is Jesus even on here ?
He is.
I don’t think we will have to wait very long to see Rivers with UAV.
UAV is high on the modernisation fund agenda.
That is a pretty good force multiplier that won’t cost fortunes. Doesn’t need to be a heavy MISPEC UAV either – something with a civvy radar and a very good IR / Vis camera would be very very useful for SAR or Counter Piracy or Drugs ops. That is pretty much off the shelf stuff now.
I would be amazed if we ever see a manned helicopter permanently based on a River: total waste of a valuable cab.
I agree!
Having a hangar would be more integrated with the funnel. Like this NZ’s HMS Wellington which is 85m
Photo oops so this instead
I note that the Fleet Commander’s WO1 recently mentioned “driving forward with
……..’up-gunning’ the Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels.”
Just the bare bones statement on these craft. So no idea whether it refers to a couple more machine guns, extends as far as the 57mm – or anything in between, quite frankly.
Anyway, caught the eye.
I guess that while cammo is not much use against radar etc. since it doesn’t cost very much, it can still have some value against asymmetric threats that use visual targeting e.g. RPGs fired from shore or small fast attack boats. Hence the increasing popularity in the littorals
an RPG has to be fairly close. Th dazzle doesnt act as ‘camouflage’ ( or hide) at all, it disguises from distant visual observation the speed ( from bow wave) , maybe direction of travel and the overall size of the ship
Looks great, I think they should follow through on what the overseas ops commander said and paint them all up like thi (including crests derived from the rivers).
“Prior to her maintenance period (and new paint scheme)HMS Tamar and Royal Marines of 42 Commando conducted experiments with the Take on Gravity Jet Suit for potential use in boarding operations.” I am sceptical that they really want to use it for boarding operations, there are way too many thing that could go wrong, and they don’t look like they could wear body armour or carry anything much bigger than a pistol. The number of situations where it could be used are too small right now…
I’m not sure anyone would have difficulty recognising the ship – given it’s got P233 in large letters on its sides.
Apparently It’s to disguise the “awesome” weaponry and to make her profile appear less threatening whilst escorting Russian Battle fleets through the English Channel. If you look really closely, you will spot the four Trident bow tubes and triple mount 18.1 inch rear turret aft of the VLS. Churchill’s toyshop was re formed as part of the latest review. A further success was the locating of the Yamato by Boaty McBoatface which manage to retrieve 3 of the main Guns which were Immediately sent to “The Repair Shop” for a little TLC. (Soon to be shown in the latest BBC series which also includes a special programme about the restoration of “Drake’s Drum” the Directors cut ). Hope this helps.
You forgot the frigin laser beams and 20 shipwrecks SSMs
And it should be named Prince Phillip…however that may be the right answer to the wrong question. Could be the lead ship name of the Type 31s, which could follow as ‘Admirals’
HMS Prince Rupert monitor
HMS Duke of Edinburgh
Monitors are named after generals I think,
Perhaps B2 T26 HMS Edinburgh could be renamed?
Radar absorbent paint and discrete radar reflectors perhaps?
She looks great! No doubt the first to get the treatment to look her best when she heads to the Indo Pacific later this year.
Great looking paint scheme, but what is the point anyway when you can follow the ship using AIS websites and applications?
In Peacetime conditions AIS etc is a useful Tool, but if say a Country was at War all means of Tracking Ships and Aircraft through such applications would be Disabled.
The internet tracking is a recent thing, originally it was only receivable by ships nearby. And would still be necessary for obvious reasons.
For planes modern ATC cant work without it. It may be possible to encrypt or similar so the internet providers dont use their network of little receivers to create a global picture .
All RN vessels should have it – looks cool, but also it is making a statement of intent and makes HMS Tamar alittle more intimidating… the psychological impact not to be sneezed at
They look pretty great. But they are good looking ships anyway.
I am not saying this should happen it is just my own opinion but it is easy to imagine a handful of Khareef class in the RN painted up like this. If I remember right there was a C3 concept image of a River/Khareef vessel but with a added quarter deck. Seems like a cost effective way to get unmanned systems out there on a useful vessel. But of course this is what type 31 will do.
I see X is here then.
??