LEM DRAIG

The Newsletter for HMS DRAGON

ISSUE 23 │Spring 2021

The DRAGON deploys

A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDING OFFICER

2020 has arguably been the most challenging year faced by our country in recent memory, an experience shared by HMS DRAGON. COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on our maintenance, training and deployment, introducing challenges which the has not had to deal with in recent times. I am pleased to say my Ship’s Company have risen to these challenges at every turn, whether at home or deployed, fighting through inevitable constraints to deliver all that has been asked of the Ship.

Amongst many activities which the Ship has undertaken since our last newsletter, DRAGON completed a short operational deployment with the Littoral Response Group during autumn 2020, including 21 days in the Black Sea, a region of strategic importance for the UK. We visited Ukraine, Georgia and Romania, deepening international relationships, improving interoperability and furthering regional security and stability whilst standing firm beside our key allies and partners.

Whilst it was perhaps not the Mediterranean deployment many of my Ship’s Company may have hoped for, it was unquestionably important. At a time of great uncertainty DRAGON has proven that the Royal Navy along with the other Services, continue to deliver their operational commitments and contribute to international security and stability. As always, we can not deliver on operations without the sacrifice and support of our family and friends at home, even more so this year as they have dealt with the constraints of lockdown whilst their loved ones were away. For this we and the Navy are as ever indebted.

With best wishes from us all in HMS DRAGON. Giles Palin Cdr RN 1 “We yield but to Saint George”

DRAGON’s Deployment LRG (X) –The Mediterranean and Black Sea

On the 1st September DRAGON deployed as part of the LRG(X) (Littoral Response Group (Experimental)), consisting of HMS DRAGON, HMS ALBION and RFA LYME BAY. The first two weeks included training off the South Coast of the UK with assistance from our Fleet Operational Sea Training (FOST) staff, but also including Weapons and Sensors trials as well as the embarkation of the Ship’s Wildcat helicopter, call sign ‘Scorch’. The challenges posed by COVID-19 meant that these first two weeks were conducted in quarantine, ensuring we were safe to deploy free from COVID-19. COVID testing of all personnel was carried out prior to leaving UK waters to ensure that the ship was ready to operate in a safe ‘bubble’.

The first stop was Gibraltar and whilst a traditional run ashore was not possible, due to the nature of global events, sundowners(drinks) on the flight deck with a view of the rock behind were enjoyed by Ship’s Company. Gibraltar also allowed for the final preparations for DRAGON’s tasking, which were soon to be checked in an Operational Capability Confidence Check (OCCC) off Crete.

Further exercises and preparations were conducted en route to Soudha Bay, Crete including interactions with various NATO assets already in the Mediterranean. Arrival in Souda allowed for a Flight Deck BBQ and a secure area of the jetty was opened up to Ship’s Company for sport and recreation. Whilst the Ship sailed each day for trials as part of its OCCC, the Boarding Team remained behind to conduct specialist boarding training at the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre (NMIOTC). After OCCC, final engineering preparations were conducted and the ship sailed independently for the Black Sea, the rest of the LRG task-group remaining in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Entry into the Black Sea requires a transit of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorous straits, including passing through Istanbul with views of the bridge between Europe and Asia and the world famous Hagia Sofia Mosque, AB Colclough had this to say: “sailing through Istanbul was a sight I will never forget. Whilst it is definitely strange to sail through a city, the sights were incredible and it is definitely a highlight of the trip”.

Once through the straits, DRAGON was truly on operational tasking, interactions with foreign militaries beginning almost immediately upon entering the Black Sea itself. The Operations Room

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and Bridge teams rose to the challenge immediately, ensuring early tracking and identification of vessels and aircraft to ensure that the PWO, AWO and Captain were always fully aware of the situation around them, in turn feeding into wider UK and NATO awareness of activity in the area.

The first stop within the Black sea was Odessa in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces Band compensated for the lack of shore leave by performing for the Ship’s Company from the jetty. An extensive package of training was conducted on-board with our partners from the Ukrainian Navy, including fire-fighting training and tactical communication training ahead of manoeuvres with Ukrainian Naval vessels upon sailing. International engagement of this type is a key role of the RN and DRAGON was proud to fly the flag in a port that is not often visited by British Warships.

DRAGON’s contribution to maritime security was further re-enforced upon sailing from Odessa, as she transited close to Crimea en route to her next port of call. Further interactions with other navies occurred during this passage and once again DRAGON’s teams remained alert and professional throughout.

The next visit was to Batumi in Georgia, another port not regularly visited by the RN. A warm welcome awaited in the form of a traditional welcoming ceremony on the jetty which was watched by the Ship’s Company. Partner nation training was conducted with the Georgian Coast Guard who embarked for boarding training serials, helping to enhance the provision of maritime security in the region. A small delegation from the ship was sent ashore to the Batumi Commonwealth War Graves, and the CO held a lunch for Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Georgia, the Georgian Defence Minister and Chief of the Georgian Defence Forces. Available personnel were permitted to proceed ashore on an organised COVID safe bus tour to Batumi’s Botanical Gardens.

Once back at sea DRAGON was kept busy once again, interacting professionally with units from other regional countries that were in the area. These operations were followed by the final Black Sea port visit of Constanta in Romania, where the Ship conducted further defence engagement, enjoying below decks leave where possible.

Before leaving the Black Sea, DRAGON conducted one final exercise with its partners and allies (left) this time with the Romanian flagship ROS MARASESTI, Romanian F-16 fighters and Royal Canadian Air Force F-18 aircraft.

DRAGON transited back through the Dardenelles and Bosphorous, rejoining the LRG task-group in the Mediterranean. Various exercises were conducted before DRAGON proceeded to Piraeus, where Her Majesty’s Ambassador and the Minister for the Armed Forces were hosted.

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Given the proximity of the Ship’s berth to Athens, “COVID bubble bus tours” were put on for the Ship’s company, allowing them to get a tantalising glimpse of the sights on offer in Greece’s capital. The stop in Piraeus also allowed for the embarkation of vital stores and for important engineering work to be conducted. The engineering and logistics departments supported efforts throughout the deployment, contributing significantly to the successful sustainment of DRAGON throughout her solo operations in the Black Sea.

Upon rejoining the Task Group after Greece, DRAGON headed for the waters off Alexandria in Egypt, successfully conducting exercises with the Egyptian Navy. A short stop in Souda Bay was followed by a final close pass of ALBN, before DRGN then departed the Task Group for the last time, transiting west across the Mediterranean conducting Maritime Security Operations.

Remembrance Sunday was appropriately observed during the transit west, always poignant when conducted on a moving flight deck in front of flying Ensign at sea. With marks of respect also paid at several maritime war memorials during the trip, the significance of the sacrifice paid by many in that part of the world over years gone by was not lost on the Ship’s Company.

A short logistic stop in Gibraltar preceded DRAGON’s return to on the 21st of November. DRAGON is incredibly proud of the work achieved during this deployment. Deploying successfully in the middle of a global pandemic is a significant achievement, as is the nature of the work undertaken. Despite being unable to go on traditional ‘runs ashore’, all Dragons maintained positive and focussed throughout, delivering all that was asked of them.

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Showing the DRAGON’s teeth Operational Sea Training – The External Battle Operational Sea Training was a three-week package conducted in February and March this year. During this time DRAGON was put through her paces as she conducted a wide variety of training simulating operations in a high-intensity conflict. DRAGON was tasked with protecting the small enclave of Freeport (as Plymouth is more commonly known in our training scenario) and the associated surrounding territoral waters.

Despite less than perfect winter weather in the , DRAGON conducted a wide variety of serials, testing her abilities across all warfare disciplines. Personnal were closed up in the Ops room to conduct serials which included SURFEXs (against surface combatant vessels), ADEXs (air defence exercises), a SWARMEX (being attacked by a multitude of small fast attack craft), intelligence gathering exercises and many more. Each week this culminated In the famous ‘Thursday War’, where threats from above, on and under the water were battled simulatneously. During the first week, DRAGON was fortunate to work with Rafale fighter jets from the 12th Flottile of the French Navy, based just across the channel in Brittany. The final week saw DRAGON teaming up the the German ship NORDRHEIN- WESTFALEN for the duration of the war. These interactions highlighted how important working with our international partners is and how much it enhances all nations.

FOST serials are always demanding on the warfare teams and personnel are deliberately put under intense pressure. DRAGON rose to the occasion, showing a commendable level of energy and grit to succeed, a handy attribute in our line of business! Despite challenging weather conditions and frequent (FOST injected) loss of capability (radars, weapons, communcations and consoles), the warfare team battled on and continued to demonstrate DRAGON’s fighting spirit.

AB Anderton, who was experiencing her first period of FOST training had this to say:

“it was a really challenging few weeks, particularly as I had never done FOST training before. We had to work really hard to make sure the picture we were providing to Command was accurate, especially when they started taking some of our radars away. It was great to feel that we’d improved as a team.”

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Fire in the belly Operational Sea Training – The internal battle

Just as importantly as being able to fight the enemy, is our ability to keep the ship running, sustained and in extremis dealing with any damage taken. This is known as the internal battle and is every bit as fierce as that being conducted from the Ops room, bridge and upper decks.

The internal battle is run to a strict rhythm in order to maintain control and command awareness of the internal situation. Throughout our training the internal battle team worked hard to address incidents ranging from floods and fires to complex machinery breakdowns. Under the Internal Battle Coordinator, the Dragons fought hard to regain the ship’s posture after every “hit” so that the CO retained the ability to fight the ship free of any internal defects.

At Action Stations, some of Ship’s Company are closed up at positions directly in line with their speciality, in order to ensure engineering support is available throughout. In the case of the Weapons Engineers, these are at Weapons Section Bbases, for the Marine Engineers, they are controlled from the Ship Control Centre(SCC) and liaising with outstations to deploy mobile repair teams.

The below is from the Propulsion assistant – ET Newbold:

“As the Propulsion assistant, I liaise between the mobile party (conducting repairs) and the Propulsion Manager (PropMan). This includes information which directly affects the propulsion plant and therefore the ability to provide ‘power to command’ (allowing the ship to travel as fast as required). Once this communication link is established between the relevant machinery spaces and the PropMan, the information is disseminated to the relevant personnel to rectify the defects in line with the PropMan’s priorities. Others have similar communication roles, but mine focuses directly on propulsion and manoeuvring. I have to liaise with those dealing with the auxiliary systems which aids in the full operation of all of our machinery. Good communication between the stations in the SCC is paramount to the success of the internal battle.”

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Other members of ship’s company are directly tasked with dealing with the fires, floods and other incidents directly. They are ready at ZCPs (Zone Control Points),

From Leading Writer Smith, ZCP1’s Incident Board Operator (IBO) -

“At action and emergency my role is to collect and maintain the picture of what is happening, co-ordinating with the SCC. It allows the I/C (person in charge) of the ZCP to see at a glance which issues fall under our responsibility. That allows them to prioritise critical incidents e.g. magazine compartments and electrical supplies. At one point a fire below the bridge caused it to become cut off and the ZCP had to decide the best way to gain access using the picture and information I provided.”

Logistics parties are also ready throughout the ship. The stores team are poised ready to provide stores and materiel as required to fix damage. The sickbay, lead by the Ships senior medic POMA Winfield, are ready to assist any wounded personnel - either from the sickbay itself or other First Aid posts. The Catering Services team are often ‘double-hatted’ ready to respond to incidents at any time as part of the fire-fighting and first aid teams but also capable of feeding the entire ship’s company in 75 minutes, if there is a lull in the action.

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Family Values Thank you to our families for all of their support

An operational deployment before Christmas and 6-weeks at sea immediately after that, have been immensely challenging. Without the love and support of everyone at home it would not have been possible to maintain this tempo and allow DRAGON to continue its contirbution towards UK defence. THANK YOU.

DRAGON in the media Further stories on Dragon’s activities https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/portsmouth-warship-hms-dragon-helps-royal-navy- strengthen-ukranian-relations-3003346 https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/royal-navy-portsmouth--hms-dragon-defends-anglo- egyptian-task-force-air-attack-3034368 https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/russia-warns-it-tracking-ps1bn-royal-navy-destroyer-hms- dragon-black-sea-2994428 https://agenda.ge/en/news/2020/3201 Caring DRAGON Ship’s company raising money for Charity

Having been limited in exercising opportunity onboard during much of the autumn deployment, three members of HMS DRAGON Wardroom took part in a physical challenge to raise money for LATCH, the Welsh Children’s Cancer Charity based in our affiliate city of . Over the course of the month of December the team, comprising the Weapons Engineer Officer, Lt Cdr Adrian Driscoll, the Logistics Officer, Lt Cdr Chris Mclaughlan, and Officer of the Watch 2, Lt Alex Slatter, took on the challenge of either running 5km or cycling 25km every single day throughout the month, including Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Hogmanay. The team fought with the worst of the winter weather, the dark nights and mornings as well as the excesses of the Christmas Season to put on their well worn trainers and successfully achieve their aim covering over 1500km in total and raising over £500 for the charity. With the aches and pains beginning to subside we are looking forward to accepting the next challenge and hope to deliver another cheque, this time personally to Latch in the autumn, allowing them to continue to do the incredible job they do for young cancer patients and their families.

Award winning DRAGON Wider recognition for inspirational leadership

The good work of DRAGON’s people is being recognised by outside agencies too. A Team Portsmouth engineering award for inspiring engineering and the Plaisterers Cup from our affiliated Livery Company for wholeship contribution were awarded to PO Benjamin Gilmore, for his unrelenting enthusiasm towards his work and leadership of his people. He is constantly looking for ways to give responsibility to the lowest level, inspiring subordinates to take ownership of their work, giving them a sense of pride in their achievements. His involvement in out-of-hours activity shows the importance PO Gilmore places on building good team relationships outside of the work, this has been hugely important for keeping morale high whilst COVID restrictions have prevented leave ashore. PO Gilmore said: “Winning these awards is surprising and humbling. The sailors I work with have made my job enjoyable and effortless. It is thanks to them I receive this award and I’d like to take this opportunity thank the crew of HMS DRAGON.” 8 “We yield but to Saint George”

AFFILIATES

CIVIC AFFILIATIONS

The City of Cardiff: www.cardiff.gov.uk The City of : www.york.gov.uk

LIVERY AFFILIATIONS Worshipful Company of Plaisterers: www.plaistererslivery.co.uk The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales: www.liverycompanyofwales.org/ The Merchant Adventurers' York: www.theyorkcompany.co.uk/ Royal Thames Yacht Club: www.royalthames.com

MILITARY AFFILIATIONS HMS EXPRESS (Wales University Royal Navy Unit): www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/the- fighting-arms/surface-fleet/patrol/archer-class/hms-express HMS CAMBRIA (Royal Naval Reserve): www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/maritime- reserves/royal-naval-reserve/units/cambria Royal Welsh Regiment: www.army.mod.uk/infantry/regiments/royalwelsh 6 Squadron RAF, Leuchars: hwww.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/squadrons/6-squadron/ 8 Squadron RAF, Waddington: www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/squadrons/8-squadron/

EX-SERVICE AFFILIATIONS Cardiff United Services Mess: www.usmcardiff.co.uk Royal British Legion (Cardiff): www.britishlegion.org.uk/ Royal British Legion (York): www.britishlegion.org.uk/ Royal Naval Association (Cardiff) www.royal-naval-association.co.uk Royal Naval Association (York) www.royal-naval-association.co.uk The British Warships Association: www.auxiliary-crew-association.co.uk

EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT AFFILIATIONS Howells School: www.howells-cardiff.gdst.net Malvern St James Girls’ School: http://www.malvernstjames.co.uk Applefields School: http://www.applefieldsschool.co.uk The Dragon School: www.dragonschool.org Rhymney Comprehensive School: http://learn.caerphilly.org.uk/rhymneycomprehensive/

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