Frigates in new training group

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33534, 15 May 1974, Page 12

Frigates in new training group

The Royal Navy ships visiting New Zealand are the first British naval task group deployed for a long period at sea under a new peace-time training concept. Two frigates are berthed at Lyttelton.

Captain 0. P. Sutton, the commanding officer of H.M.S. Scylla, which arrived at Lyttelton yesterday morning, said that the group concept was very economical.

It provided a stronger j fighting unit, and permitted the ships to exercise together as well as with the navies of treaty allies, said Captain Sutton. However, the concept took no account of the present Government’s defence thinkring. “Hopefully, it will not be the last group so employed.” The group, of eight ships, including five frigates, left England on January 8 on an eight-month tour of duty east of the Cape of Good

Hope. It has exercised with other navies en route to New Zealand. The group will sail next to Sydney, and in June it will take part in an exercise in the Coral Sea with Australian, United States, and New Zealand warships. Captain Sutton said that both he and Commander C. J. Caughey, the commanding officer of H.M.S. Ariadne, which arrived at Lyttelton with the Scylla, were delighted to be in New Zealand, a popular destination which the Royal Navy did not visit as often as it ought to.

MORE VISITS? However, under the taskgroup concept it was likely that visits by British warships would be more frequent — perhaps every nine months.

The Scylla and the Ariadne are Leander-class frigates and although this class is still being built for other navies, the long-term plans of the Royal Navy call for a new frigate class. Captain Sutton was in New Zealand last year with a group from the former Imperial Defence College, now known as the Royal College of Defence Studies.

OPEN TO PUBLIC Soon after berthing at 8 a.m. crews of the warships were busy preparing them for their four-day stay. The Scylla will be open to the public from 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. today, and the Ariadne will be open for inspection from 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. tomorrow.

The two commanding officers made a number of official calls in Lyttelton and Christchurch yesterday. At the City Council offices they presented a ship’s plaque to the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr N. G. Pickering). There was a reception aboard the Scylla last evening.