New Royal Navy patrol ship hit by engine woe on first voyage rises to the task on first Nato mission
THE navy’s newest £100m warship, which reportedly broke down days into her maiden voyage, has successfully completed a stint at sea with a Nato task group.
Patrol ship HMS Trent suffered an engine malfunction after leaving Portsmouth last month and needed to head to Gibraltar for repair, national newspapers claimed.
But the 295ft warship soon left the port and joined Operation Sea Guardian, a Nato task group in the Mediterranean tasked with deterring, detecting and disrupting illegal activity.
As well as scanning the horizon for possible threats, the ship’s company also played a key role in detecting criminal and terrorist activity in the region.
Lieutenant Oliver Bekier, Trent's e xecutive officer currently in command of the ship, said: ‘The immediate success seen during our first period of operational tasking, and the way in which Trent has quickly integrated within the broader Nato construct, demonstrates the utility of the Batch 2 offshore patrol vessel in serving Britain’s interests in this area of the world.’
Following the end of the exercise, Trent returned to Gibraltar to resupply.
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