HMS Tamar, a Royal Navy patrol vessel affiliated with Truro, has joined her sister ship HMS Spey along with allies from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore in a major ten-day workout in the South China Sea.
The ships, which are each crewed by around 60 sailors, are taking part in the Five Power Defence Arrangements' (FPDA) tri-annual exercise.
The ships left Falmouth for their five-year deployment in the Indo-Asia Pacific region in 2021.
According to the Royal Navy, since then Spey has spent 15,259 hours at sea – that's 636 days – travelling 161,133 nautical miles in the process, and Tamar has steamed 159,000 nautical miles and 15,000 hours at sea.
Collectively, the pair have sailed nearly 15 times around the world in the past five years.
Recommended reading
-
Balaena welcomes £6bn shipbuilding investment and says UK yards stand ready
-
Offshore trenching vessel Aethra arrives in Falmouth after cable work off Brittany
-
Sea Ranger's return rekindles memories of an epic 1990 salvage operation
HMS Tamar has also exercised navigation rights and freedoms in the South China Sea, operating alongside the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Perth.
The activity continues a pattern of joint British and Australian assertions of international law in waters where China maintains expansive claims.
Share