Displaying items by tag: OPV pair tied up
Naval Service Offshore Patrol Vessels (P50's) to Be Tied Up as Crew Crisis Deepens
A pair of Naval Service offshore patrol vessels (OPV) according to The Journal.ie are to be tied up in Haulbowline, Cork Harbour as there are not enough crew to operate the vessels.
It has been confirmed by the Department of Defence (DOD) that the OPV P50's series LE Róisín (P51) and LE Niamh (P52) will be unable to head to sea due to crippling staffing retention and recruitment crisis in the Defence Forces.
(Afloat adds this would leave the naval fleet with just a quartet of OPV P60 series among them the final member LE George Bernard Shaw (P64) which came into service in 2018. All four ships in addition to the older OPV P50 / Róisín series were built in Appledore, England and before the Harland & Wolff Group acquired the shipyard in north Devon).
The development to reduce the fleet came a day before Tánaiste and Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin visited Irish troops in Lebanon (yesterday)for the first time since he took over at the DOD.
The decision to mothball OPV P50's according to sources was made last week in discussions during a high level meeting of defence civil servants and senior officers in the Defence Forces.
The same sources it is understood said that the remaining members of the OPV P60's ships’ crews (each with 44 crew and 6 officers) have yet to be informed of the move.
Another pair of naval vessels acquired from the Royal New Zealand Navy are scheduled to arrive in the coming months, however it remains unknown if crew numbers can be found to operate these Inshore Patrol Vessels.
Further reading here on this story.
