HMS Exploit (P167)

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History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Exploit
OperatorRoyal Navy
Builder
Vosper Thornycroft
Commissioned1988
Identification
MottoActis Inclitis - With Illustrious Deeds
StatusIn active service
General characteristics
Class and type
patrol vessel
Displacement54 tonnes
Length20.8 m (68 ft 3 in)
Beam5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Draught1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)
Propulsion2 shafts,
Rolls-Royce M800T diesels
, 1,590 bhp
Speed20 kn (37 km/h)
Range550 nmi (1,020 km)
Complement5 ship's company plus up to 1 training officer and 12 URNU students
Sensors and
processing systems
Decca 1216 navigation radar

HMS Exploit is an

Vosper Thornycroft and commissioned in 1988.[1][2]
She is assigned to the Royal Navy Coastal Forces Squadron, carrying out a range of activities both in the U.K. and overseas.

The ship's company consists of a permanent staff of the commanding officer, two senior rates and two junior rates, but can take up to twelve students with training officers usually embarked when conducting navigational training. Whilst at sea, students are able to put into practice navigation and seamanship skills they have learnt in the classroom during weekly training nights. These include chart planning, acting as Officer of the Watch, using the ship's radar and carrying out seamanship evolutions from anchoring to securing alongside. Instruction is given in engineering, firefighting, damage control and ship handling. The ship is based in HMNB Portsmouth.

Operational history

Royal Naval Auxiliary Service

XSV Exploit was originally ordered for the now defunct Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) and had a distinctive black hull like other RNXS vessels.

On 19 March 1994, a serious machinery space fire occurred on Exploit approximately 30 miles of

Padstow lifeboat and the RAF SAR Helicopter from Chivenor, were scrambled, and a tanker on route to Milford Haven was diverted to help, but were not needed. The fire was later attributed to a major mechanical failure of the starboard main engine, resulting in a large hole in the sump casing. The fire spread quickly to the air ducts, igniting various rubber coolant pipes causing thick acrid smoke.[3]

Royal Navy

In June 2017, Exploit, in company with HM Ships Smiter, Ranger and Archer, deployed to the Baltic to take part in the NATO BALTOPS exercise, the first time that Royal Navy P2000s have been involved in such an exercise.[4]

In the early 2020s, Exploit, along with other Archer-class vessels, was given a more operational role as part of the reconstituted Coastal Forces Squadron. In early 2024, Exploit and three of her sister ships deployed to northern Norway as part of the NATO exercise "Steadfast Defender".[5]

Affiliations

Notes

References

  1. ^ "Patrol Boats – Archer class". Royal Navy. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  2. ^ "Archer Class P2000 (URNU)". Armed Forces.net. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. ^ "The Volunteer". The Volunteer (The Final Journal of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service). Portsmouth: Holbrook printers. March 1994.
  4. ^ "1st Patrol Boat Squadron's Baltops endeavour". Royal Navy. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  5. ^ "Royal Navy's smallest ships take on huge challenge as they brave weeks of rough seas". ForcesNet. 5 February 2024.

External links