Hunt-class Mine Countermeasures Vessel
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Hunt-class Mine Countermeasures Vessel
OR:
Hunt-class Mine Countermeasures Vessel on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Hunt class is a
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...
of thirteen
mine countermeasure vessel A mine countermeasures vessel or MCMV is a type of naval ship designed for the location of and destruction of naval mines which combines the role of a minesweeper and minehunter A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destr ...
s of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. As built, they combined the separate roles of the traditional
minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...
and that of the active
minehunter A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destroys individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines. A vessel that combines both of these roles is known as a ...
in one hull, but later modifications saw the removal of mine-sweeping equipment. They have a secondary role as offshore patrol vessels.


Development

Upon introduction in the early 1980s they were the largest warships ever built out of glass-reinforced plastic and were the last in operation to use the
Napier Deltic The Napier Deltic engine is a British opposed-piston valveless, supercharged uniflow scavenged, two-stroke diesel engine used in marine and locomotive applications, designed and produced by D. Napier & Son. Unusually, the cylinders were disp ...
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
. All were built by
Vosper Thornycroft VT Group is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VT Group was integrated into Babcock International in t ...
in
Woolston Woolston may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington * Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon * Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...
except and , which were built by
Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also ...
on the River Clyde. was the last ship of the class launched. Following the sale of and to the Greek Navy, the sale of and to the Lithuanian Navy and the decommissioning of , a contract to re-engine the remaining eight vessels was signed by BAE Systems in 2008, whereby the existing 30-year old Napier Deltic 9-59K power units were replaced by Caterpillar CAT C32 engines, together with new gearboxes, bow thrusters, propellers and control systems, in a six year refurbishment programme that was completed in 2018. The capabilities of the remaining eight vessels of the Hunt class have been significantly enhanced by the installation of
Sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
Type 2193 and the NAUTIS 3 command system. The performance of Sonar 2193 exceeds that of any other mine hunting sonar in service in the world today and is capable of detecting and classifying an object the size of a football at a distance of up to . In late 2007 ''Chiddingfold '' used the Seafox drone, the Royal Navy's mine disposal system, during Exercise Neptune Warrior off Scotland. Seafox is described by the MOD as a ''"state of the art fire and forget system, capable of destroying mines in depths of up to 300 metres"''. The 2021 defence white paper announced that all the Hunt-class vessels would be retired from Royal Navy service in the 2020s and replaced by automated systems. It was subsequently indicated that the withdrawal would occur in the 2029 to 2031 period.


Ships in the class

All 13 ships of this class re-used names from the World War II . Four of the names had also been used for World War I s: these were HMS ''Bicester'', ''Cattistock'', ''Cottesmore'' and ''Quorn''. had been a paddlewheel minesweeper in 1916, and was a
coaster Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...
taken up from trade in 1916.


See also

* ''Sandown''-class minehunter


References


External links

* {{Hunt class MCMV Patrol vessels of the United Kingdom Mine warfare vessel classes Napier Deltic Ship classes of the Royal Navy