RFA Stirling Castle is welcomed into the fleet at Leith

State-of-the-art Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, RFA Stirling Castle, will be welcomed into the Naval Fleet on Thursday, April 11, during a Service of Dedication at Forth Ports in Leith.

The 6,000-tonne vessel will be at the forefront of supporting the next generation of the Royal Navy’s mine countermeasures capability.

Last year the vessel, which began life as MV Island Crown, underwent conversion at
HM Naval Base Devonport, allowing her to operate as a “mother ship” for the Royal

Navy’s new autonomous mine countermeasures systems experts based at HM Naval Base Clyde.
Military personnel, dignitaries and civilian leaders will join members of the Royal FleetAuxiliary at the dedication service, with RFA
Stirling Castle being the latest vessel to
join the fleet of 11 platforms that provide support to Royal Navy ships all over the
world.

The service will be held in the presence of guest of honour, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, in his role as Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

RFA Stirling Castle and her crew will work closely with Zulu Squadron of the Mine and Threat Exploitation Group (MTXG), who are trailblazing advances in technology to keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat from naval mines. They employ a full suite of Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) and Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) which can be operated remotely using a portable command centre on land or onboard Stirling Castle.

Stirling Castle will replace traditional mine countermeasures vessels, exploiting a series of uncrewed devices which include, not only MTXG, but also the joint French-UK Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) system, the Combined Influence Sweep (SWEEP) system and Medium Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (MAUVs).

Following the Service of Dedication, the vessel and her crew of civilian sailors look forward to returning to Clyde to work with MTXG on more trials designed to understand how the technology can be used to enhance operations in and around the UK.