12. HMS Lancaster Report

HMS LANCASTER returned from her last Operational deployment in December 2015, after this the Ship was placed in extended readiness in Portsmouth harbour. In 2017 the ship was towed to Plymouth to start her Upkeep period but due to the amount of remedial structural work on the hull the Upkeep was extended to two years. During this time the Ship has had over 2000 new steel inserts put into her hull to make her structurally sound again, and at one stage the upkeep contractor had to stop cutting steel out (until others had been replaced) as LANC was beginning to twist and bend out of shape. However, two years later in April 2019 HMS LANCASTER saw her first six crew members join, since then the crew has grown in numbers to over 165, meeting the first milestone of Ship Staff Move On Board. The Ships Company rose to the challenge and the LANC crew successfully moved back on board HMS LANCASTER on the 14 August 2019; this success was down to the hard work and dedication of all the parties involved in the regeneration of the Ship. The Ship’s next major milestone is Ready For Sea Date currently planned for the 13 December 2019, this has involved the re-commissioning of Marine and Weapon Engineering systems to ensure that the Ship can safely proceed to sea to carry out initial sea safety trials. Many of the systems have laid dormant for nearly four years and an additional challenge has been to integrate new machinery and equipment which includes new navigational radar, sea captor missile system, RT997 radar and mission essential communications equipment. As well as physically fitting the equipment, departmental training has been essential to ensure that the Ship’s crew not only know how to safely operate it but also to understand the limitations/operating parameters of the new equipment. On top of all this LANC has had to ensure that each member of the crew is safe to proceed to sea and so firefighting and damage control exercises are taking place daily to enhance the core knowledge of the crew. LANC’s Commanding Officer, Cdr William Blackett RN joins on the 3 December 2019 just prior to taking the Ship to sea for the first time in four years. This is an ideal time for him to join as he will get to know the Ship inside and out during the trials period in early 2020, but ahead of this HMS LANCASTER will return Home and enter Portsmouth in time for Christmas.

Mike – FYI as PRO.

Regards,

Danny Glover

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