Royal Navy mine hunter HMS Ramsey returned to Faslane today after international exercises in the Baltic Sea.
Ramsey left her home on the Clyde in May, briefly stopping at Rosyth and Copenhagen, before joining-up with a NATO group from the Danish, German, Estonian and Norwegian navies which worked together to clear historic ordnance off the coast of Estonia. Afterwards they sailed to Kiel in Germany, to take part in NATO’s Exercise Baltops where they joined colleagues from Finland, Lithuania and The Netherlands.
It was the second successive year that Ramsey has taken part in the exercise, on this occasion relieving sister ship HMS Grimsby and joining frigate HMS Kent and more than 20 other ships and aircraft for the biggest wargames of 2020 in the Baltic.
Lieutenant Commander Joel Roberts, commanding officer of HMS Ramsey, said: “This has been a short yet excellent deployment for HMS Ramsey and her ship’s company.
“Maintaining a persistent and adaptable presence is extremely important in being able to react to the range of security threats against UK and NATO interests.
“We have worked with partners and allies from Norway, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, the Netherlands and Finland.
“The training value permanently formed in a task group is unparalleled and the range of mine countermeasures tasking and exercises has allowed the continued development of our capability.”
HMS Ramsey was operated by Crew 6 from the Faslane-based First Mine Counter Measures Squadron, which operates eight crews rotating between the seven Sandown Class mine hunters, two of which have been forward deployed in the Middle East since December 2006.
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