Submarine hunter HMS Montrose tested her mettle against two diesel boats off the west coast of Scotland.
The Devonport frigate, plus destroyer HMS Diamond and two Dutch warships locked horns with the HNoMS Uthaug and the Dutch HNLMS Bruinvis during Exercise Coqcfight.
PEEK-a-boo.
The tell-tale array of periscopes, antenna and masts of a submarine gingerly pops up above the surface of the Firth of Clyde… right under the nose of HMS Montrose during a game of cat and mouse.
Tomorrow’s submarine commanders locked horns with today’s submarine hunters during Exercise Coqcfight off the west coast of Scotland.
The would-be boat COs were undergoing COQC, the Commanding Officer Qualifying Course – also known as the Submarine Command Course or, in everyday RN parlance, the Perisher – in two diesel boats: Norwegian HNoMS Uthaug and the Dutch HNLMS Bruinvis (which earlier this year was giving HMS Westminster and Richmond the runaround).
Ranged against them, Montrose – (bravely) billing herself as ‘the most Scottish ship in the Fleet’ – plus destroyer HMS Diamond and Dutch destroyer HNLMS Evertsen and submarine support ship HNLMS Mercuur.
In gale force winds, and knowing that in the rapid tidal races off the Mull of Kintyre, the submarines would use underwater contours to navigate safely, Montrose initially drew a blank, but decided to narrow her area of search to where a wily opponent would be likely to hide.
Knowing that the Bruinvis was entangled with Diamond 20 miles to the east, anything the Devonport-frigate found was likely to be the Norwegian boat.
“All anti-submarine warfare contains an element of luck on top of the training, the state of the art kit, and the exploitment of the environmental conditions,” explains Lt Cdr Tony Marden, Montrose’s weapon engineer officer.
The Dutch submarine Bruinvis chases HMS Diamond
Unfortunately for the student commanding officers in the Uthaug, luck lay with the fully-worked-up Type 23 frigate..
Flash PWO. Sonar contact bearing 320, she’s trying to hide in the shadows of the cliff, sir!
“The shout went out across the Ops room and the grin on the face of Montrose’s principal warfare officer said it all: We have you now!” said Lt Cdr Marden.
Marine sound signals were launched off the bridge and the explosions that followed announced to the Norwegians below that they were out of the fight.
For 20 minutes the sonar operators watched as the boat squirmed, sprinted and drifted to try to escape the tartan trap in which they found themselves – but all to no avail.
For this particular engagement, it was 1-0 to the skimmers. Thirty metres below the surface, an uncomfortable debrief undoubtedly took place aboard the Norwegian boat.
However, throughout the three days of the “free-play” finale of Perisher, the battles were not so one-sided, and the submarines gave as good as they got in many cases, even when skewered by combined attacks from three ships and two Merlin helicopters.
"Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of hunting live submarines in congested waters, and both submarines proved worthy adversaries in some very challenging conditions,” said Cdr James Parkin, Montrose’s CO.
“Having recently had world-class training, it was reassuring that my sailors proved that they are world-class anti-submarine warriors – I’m very proud of their performance, and equally glad we’re on the same side as our Dutch and Norwegian friends."
Read June’s Navy News for a special feature on 21st-Century anti-submarine warfare.
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