HMS LANCASTER

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Royal Navy plans to withdraw sole frigate from Bahrain

The Royal Navy appears to withdraw the HMS 'Lancaster', which has been permanently deployed frigate in the Gulf region, which is approaching the end to its working life, which is based at the UK’s Naval Support Facility in Bahrain. When HMS 'Lancaster' returns home within the next few months to be decommissioned, the only Royal Navy operational ship remaining in Bahrain will be the Hunt-class minesweeper HMS 'Middleton (M34)', with the Sandown Class minesweeper HMS 'Bangor (M109)' dry-docked locally for repair after a collision with USS 'Gladiator (MCM-11)'. The withdrawal of HMS 'Lancaster' has been necessitated primarily by the withdrawal of Type 23 frigates from service before their replacements - the Type 26 Global Combat Ship and the Type 31 frigate - start coming into service in 2028. The HMS 'Lancaster' has been tasked with anti-smuggling duties and committed to keeping the Straits of Hormuz open, having made two major drug seizures in recent months. She has also been trialling the use of Peregrine remote-controlled mini-helicopters for broadening the swathe of its surveillance sweep out to 100 miles while at sea.

Frigate seized more than £10m of drugs

The HMS 'Lancaster' seized more than £10m of drugs after Marines boarded two ships in the Indian ocean and Gulf within 12 hours during the weekend of June 3-4, 2023, discovering tonnes of narcotics in dawn and dusk raids, working closely with the US Navy to support a merchant vessel reporting harassment. The frigate captured more than seven tons of hashish, heroin and methamphetamine across the two operations, which were part of the ship's security patrol of the region. In the first call as part of a dawn mission, the ship's specialist Royal Marines boarding team found 3.5 tons of narcotics after tracking down a suspect vessel since the early hours of the morning. The same evening, the ship's Wildcat helicopter spotted another craft and the boarding team sprang into action once again to seize a further 3.7 tons and complete the impressive double drugs bust. Report with photos: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12165121/Royal-Navy-seizes-10million-drugs-boarding-two-ships-12-hours.html