Options
Navy News SEPTEMBER
1993
30p
CAMBODIA — IT'S DIFFERENT PATROLLING the Mekong River in a monsoon downpour, teaching kids some basic English, negotiating with the People's Armed Forces — or maybe the Khmer Rouge — enjoying a joke with a monk, getting sea-time in the Gulf of Thailand in a Soviet Stenka-class gunboat, dispensing nutty and medicine in a floating village, keeping a python to swallow up the rats, dodging the potholes in the dirt roads on a "pussers-issue" scrambler bike and, yes, occasionally dodging the bullets, too. This is the way of life for the 70 or so volunteers from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines serving with the United Nations in Cambodia. Cambodia — a war-weary country where the smiling children are a constant delight, where public transport is the pillion of a 50cc moped (a "moto"), whose driver will stay all day for a US dollar. Where teenage soldiers lounge in hammocks at the roadside, nursing their AK47s. "See the world. Differently," is the current slogan of the RN recruiters. For those serving in Cambodia it's a slogan that fits the bill exactly. Serving with the UNTAC Navy — see centre pages
• Spotlight on submarines — The Princess of Wales was guest of honour at the commissioning of HMS Vanguard, the Royal Navy's first Trident submarine, at Barrow-in-Furness last month. She is seen here with the boat's Commanding Officer (Starboard), Cdr. Jim Boyd. Also pictured below is HMS Unicorn, last of the Upholder Class submarines, arriving for the first time at Devonport where she has joined the Second Submarine Squadron. Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind opened the new £1.7bn support complex for the Trident submarines at Faslane — a few days before HMS Opossum, the last of the Navy's Oberon Class dieselelectric submarines, paid off for the last time at Gosport.
HMS Triumph, eighth and last of the Trafalgar Class nuclearpowered Fleet submarines, returned to Devonport last month from a record-breaking 46,700-mile voyage designed to demonstrate the Royal Navy's role in "power projection" into the next century. During a remarkable seven month trip that took her to Australia and back she provided graphic evidence of the Royal Navy nuclear flotilla's ability to deploy at very long range without support (see also pages 16-17).
Submarine mission with a message
"It is not a terribly expensive business to convert an SSN to carry cruise missiles . . . a nuclear submarine can power project by its presence alone." — First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Benjamin Bathurst. Interview: pages 16, 17. News view: page 18 'Smiles': page 18
She was away for 197 days — 151 of them at sea with 131 of those dived — with well-earned breaks at G i b r a l t a r , Abu Dhabi. (United Arad Emirates), Diego Garcia, Perth and Singapore. Taking part in exercises with RN ships and naval vessels from a number of friendly countries, she operated in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Cape of Good Hope, in the Southern Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Straits of Hormuz, Arabian Gulf, Sunda Strait, Java Sea, South China Sea, Singapore Straits, Malacca Straits, Mediterranean and Straits of Gibraltar. She travelled over 40,000 n a u t i c a l miles dived a n d crossed the Equator 12 times. She is the first nuclear-powered submarine to have operated in the Gulf and has returned with a wealth of information on operating in tropical waters. Commanding Officer Cdr David Vaughan told Navy News the boat had deployed entirely alone — and thus "conclusively proved the SSN's unrivalled ability for world-wide rapid and unsupported deployment. "But we come home in the knowledge that it could not have been achieved without solid support from Flag Officer Submarines, the Second Submarine Squadron, HMS Defiance — and the patience and understanding of those who were left behind at home. "I hope the way has been paved for more submarine deployments to follow."
The 30-year-old boat had made history at the beginning of August when she became the first Western submarine to visit Severomorsk, home of Russia's Northern Fleet, since the Second World War (see page 3).