Families attend Royal Navy passing out parade at HMS Sultan for the first time in a year

HMS Sultan, in Gosport, finally staged one of its graduation events, which had previously been held behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This latest passing out parade saw a total of 37 recruits marking the formal end of their engineering technician initial career course.

The graduates will now join either the submarine service or general fleet to help keep ships and boats in good working order.

And to celebrate their milestone, the newly-qualified sailors were able to invite two of their loved ones to watch the passing out ceremony.

Captain John Voyce, the commanding officer of HMS Sultan, said: ‘It is wonderful for our trainees to be able to invite their friends and families into Sultan, to attend and share their Passing Out Parades once more.

‘Our technicians are trained to the highest of standards and each one of the trainees passing out will have had to work very hard to achieve the required grade.

‘We are therefore delighted to be able to welcome their friends and families into celebrate their achievements and hope that we will be able to return to full attendance in the future.’

Among the guests of honour at the passing out parade included Captain Sophie Shaughnessy, the navy’s head of people operations and Commodore Mark Prince, director nuclear propulsion for the submarine service.

HMS Sultan is one of the navy’s biggest training establishments.

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Home to hundreds of sailors, it is the navy’s primary hub to train the next generation of marine engineers and naval air engineers.

During the pandemic, the base was sealed for lockdown.

However, training still continued for sailors inside.

As previously reported, the Royal Navy has historically struggled to hire more engineers.

The situation, which is mirrored nationally, has caused a recruitment crisis.

However, on Monday First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin told The News that the navy was beginning to get a grip on the situation, with general recruitment up by ‘30 per cent’ over the past two years.

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