Royal Navy: HMS Cattistock blows up mines and fires guns at targets near Scotland ahead of Middle East task

The Hunt-class minehunter HMS Cattistock geared up for a deployment to the Middle East by traversing the waters of the Scottish lochs and islands. Sailors blew up seabed mines, fired the ship’s machine guns and cannon at targets on the surface during the preparations.

Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Rob Garner, who has nearly two decades of experience under his belt in the Royal Navy, said: “The training has been very challenging – but good fun. We’ve learnt a lot very quickly and I have enjoyed every minute of being at sea, especially live gunnery as a 30mm and heavy machine gun aimer.”

The training drills took place across several weeks off western Scotland, with the 50 crew members being put through their paces. HMS Cattistock is due to relieve HMS Middleton in Bahrain this Summer. The Royal Navy rotates its mine warfare crews to maintain a permanent presence in the Gulf, with preparation for each operational mission requiring roughly six months of training overseen by a team of experts.

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The drills cover the basics of safe seafaring - navigation, ship handling, and coping with breakdowns - as well as basic military operations such as gunnery, launching the sea boat, mine-hunting, dive team operations and full-on conflict scenarios. HMS Cattistock celebrated her 44th birthday last month, with the ship’s “plastic” hull allowing for her to be operational for longer. Her engines, generators and mine warfare system is frequently upgraded and replaced to keep her up to spec.

Sub Lieutenant Sophie Huby conducted specialised training and learned how to keep the minehunter an exact position while mine-hunting. “Ship handling is a vital skill for Officers of the Watch and ‘hovering’ is essential for mine-hunting, requiring quick and careful reactions,” the Elgin native said. “It has been really useful for me to learn how to do this in support of real operations and the ship’s training.”

Lt Cdr Garner believes his team will rise to the challenge of handling the conditions in the Gulf. He added: “We’re looking forward to our Gulf deployment and we will look proudly on our time in HMS Cattistock and the adventures we’ve had round UK waters. I think the crew have proven you really can teach an ‘old Catt’ new tricks.”