Royal Navy: HMS Dauntless put through her paces in gruelling training exercises as warship is declared front-line ready

HMS Dauntless has been put through her paces in an intensive nine months of maintenance, trials and training regimes. She was cleared for operations after a gruelling assessment of her crew, all weapons and systems.

Her regeneration – which included three months of trials around the UK to test her enhanced engines last summer – means she is now ready to be deploy on global operations later this year. Commander Ben Power, Commanding Officer of HMS Dauntless. said: ‘I am immensely proud of what the ship’s company have achieved, to be able to take a ship with a new and unproven propulsion plant and turn it in to a credible air defence destroyer ready for global operations in a period of just nine months is an enormous achievement.’

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HMS Dauntless’s training was completed in only four months off the south coast – including the testing of all of its weapons. This included her ferocious 30mm cannons, the 4.5in main gun and Phalanx radar-controlled gun.

The latter is capable of spitting out four-and-a-half thousand rounds per minute at incoming aircraft, missiles or fast-attack boats. General purpose and heavy machine guns were also tested to the brink.

Testing also included tracking targets with a very low radar cross section, designed to replicate a small incoming missile – a crucial part of the air defence destroyer’s capability. The destroyer’s multi-function radar on the main mast and long range radar on the rear mast proved their capabilities of tracking targets flying at altitudes or across the waves.

A five-week testing regime was also given to the ship’s company under the exacting glare of the Fleet Operation Standards and Training teams at Devonport Naval Base. The training increased in complexity throughout, with other vessels and helicopters added to equation as the ship defeated threats simulated by aircraft and boats in a range of environments, including in the air, on the surface and even underwater.

HMS Dauntless showed it was able to perform well in a disaster relief and crises response role. She carried out a ‘rescue’ from a stricken merchant vessel and provided engineering support following an incident at sea, before an evacuation operation in which the ship brought people escaping conflict to safety - providing food, water and medical care.

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The centrepiece of the training was the disaster relief exercise, deploying sailors ashore to a village and providing the humanitarian aid needed following a natural disaster, including providing fresh food and water, extinguishing fires and repairing critical infrastructure such as communications networks, electricity supply and water supply.

Lieutenant Commander Aaron Revell said: ‘Having joined at the beginning of the year, I have focused on the delivery of the Operational Sea Training to the ship’s company. This five-week package has given the crew the opportunity to show we have incredible people ready and able to operate HMS Dauntless.’

The ship went through a multi-million pound overhaul last year which upgraded her engines.