Thetis Class Ocean Patrol Vessels

HDMS (Her Danish Majesty's Ship) Vædderen (F359) (Aries) is a Thetis-class ocean patrol vessel of the Royal Danish Navy. She is employed to exercise Danish sovereignty in waters around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.

The Thetis-class ocean patrol vessels, also called Stanflex 3000, are a class of large patrol vessels built for the Royal Danish Navy. The class comprises four ships, all built and commissioned in the early 1990s. The ships' tasks are mainly maintenance of sovereignty, search and rescue, fishery inspection and support to local (mainly Greenlandic) authorities. The operation areas are normally Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, but the vessels also operate near Iceland on transit between Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, and near Denmark.

The ships each have double-skinned ice-reinforced hulls so that the ships can break through 80 centimetres (31 in) of solid ice. Thetis has undergone a conversion, first to participate in the CANUMAS-project, and later to become the fleet's flagship, a role that ended in September 2007. The Danish Navy has retrofitted the vessels with 12.7-millimetre (0.50 in) heavy machine guns, Stinger launchers and decoy launching systems. The ships can carry and use multiple Stanflex mission modules.

In the most common role (ocean patrol), the standard base crew is 47 persons and 16 conscripts, but in either command ship role or more warfare heavy roles, the base crew is expanded to 60 persons plus 4 aircrew for the Westland Lynx Mk.90B and one or two doctors. Accommodation is available for 101 personnel in all.

Vessels

Thetis	F357
Triton	F358
Vædderen	F359
Hvidbjørnen	F360

For further information and photographs of the class please click HERE  


She is seen arriving here at Leith I apologise for the poor quality of these images as my camera packed in after a few shots and the focus was not working correctly.

Archer Class Patrol Vessels

The Archer class (or P2000) is a class of patrol and training vessels in service with the Royal Navy, commonly referred to as a Fast Training Boat.  They are twin-shaft vessels with moulded glass-reinforced plastic hulls.

The Archers were initially used as Royal Navy patrol craft and as training tenders for the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and University Royal Naval Units (URNU). Four identical vessels were ordered for the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) as Example-class tenders. When that service was disbanded in 1994, the Examples were transferred to the Royal Navy for similar duties as their Archer-class brethren.  Until 2005, the 4 Examples were still painted with a black hull.

In 1998 two additional vessels (Raider and Tracker) of this design were commissioned into the Royal Navy as URNU training vessels to the two newest URNUs, serving Cambridge and Oxford Universities respectively. This brought the total of Archer class vessels in the Royal Navy to 16, of which 14 form the 1st Patrol Boat Squadron (formerly the Inshore Training Squadron), each one attached to an URNU (one per unit) under the command of a Lieutenant. The remaining 2 vessels (Pursuer and Dasher), having formed the Cyprus Squadron from 2003 to 2010, and URNU vessels before that, returned to the UK in April 2010 to form the Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron, performing security duties within HMNB Clyde - these can be identified by a number of pintle-mounted L7 7.62 mm GPMG machine guns and armour plating. Ranger and Trumpeter were also formerly allocated to the Gibraltar Squadron for guard ship and search and rescue duties, but were replaced by the dedicated Scimitar class. Unlike the remainder of the class, both these ships remain capable of being mounted with a 20mm cannon on the fo'c'sle.

Vessels

Archer	P264	Aberdeen
Biter	P270	Manchester
Smiter	P272	Glasgow
Pursuer	P273	HMNB Clyde
Tracker	P274	Oxford
Raider	P275	Bristol
Blazer	P279	Southampton
Dasher	P280	HMNB Clyde
Puncher	P291	London
Charger	P292	Liverpool
Ranger	P293	Sussex
Trumpeter	P294	Cambridge
Example	P165	Northumbrian
Explorer	P164	Yorkshire
Express	P163	Wales
Exploit	P167	Birmingham

For more information on the Archer class click HERE

HMS Archer is the first and lead ship of the Archer / P2000 class of Fast patrol Boat and is also known as "The Original and Best".

She is seen here in Leith