RFA Lyme Bay in position in Montserrat
The RFA. Lyme Bay is one of four naval ships collectively known as the Bay Class; Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliary) or LSD(A), belonging to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA)’ It made its first visit to Montserrat spending three days, August 13-16, 2015. The visit and operations conducted were hailed as a outstanding success.
The visit was part of the U.K. Government’s commitment to ensuring the safety and security of its overseas territories and in particular the disaster relief operation that the A.F.A. can bring. The naval ship is currently on duty as part of the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Patrol Task (North). Her primary role is to provide support to the United Kingdom Overseas Territories to reinforce the UK Government’s commitment to the region.
Capain of the Lyme Bay is Captain Paul Mintor spoke to reporters and told them how they were able to meet their stated objectives, which include, Securing UK industry;maintaining global presence; stabilisng hotspots and strategic positioning.
About the visit the captain spoke to ZJB later confirming his satisfaction with his explanation of the aims he had outlined during a visit from the local press corps and others to the ship on Thursday, He said he felt he and his men learned a few lessons and “I suspect there was a few lessons learnt ashore.”
The captain commented on the simulation exercise they conducted with the DMCA as in a live disaster response situation for which they are very well equipped. “I think everything we aimed, set out to do worked. We managed to get some vehicles around the island, so I think there was a bit of a challenge there trying to get some of the larger vehicles up Foigathy hill but they all made it eventually,” he said cheerfully.
He spoke also about some other exercises. “We did some community tasks and I think the major incident I think was liaising, getting the communications and the familiarity with each other up and running which was the most important thing/ Among the community tasks they completed was the complete renovation of a blind man’s home in Davy Hill with supplies and equipment all brought in off the ship, showing they can be rady to do disaster repairs in an emergency.
Members of the media had expressed that the ship was the largest they had visited and were surprised at the ship’s capacity and the varying heavy equipment if stored on the board.
Meantime head of the governor’s office Tony Bates shared that view but commented first on the key communication aspect of the simulation exercise which he said then, worked very well. He also gave feedback on the capacity of the RFA Lime Bay to provide optimum assistance in case of emergency or disaster.
Bates said that the base communication was down was down at Little Bay and the Royal Montserrat Defense Force (RMDF) were on the Montserrat radio network interfacing directly with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary team that came ashore on their radio network. That made them around the island absolutely seamless,
He then spoke of the capacity and the capability of the ship. “I would just like to say that the capability that this ship has brought to the region I don’t think has ever been seen in the region before certainly from the U.K. side,” he said.
He had not seen, “…anything like this. In my experience I’ve been involved with these visits on and off for the last twenty years, I’ve never seen a ship with the scale of capability and assets that this ship has brought; and, in terms of its primary task the defense and security of the overseas territories especially during the hurricane season this is the absolute Rolls Royce of capability for me,” he said, concluding with similar expressions from the media that, “We only saw what I understand was a fraction of the assets that the ship has on board both in terms of manpower and there are some women power as well but also the machinery.”
