HMS Bulwark rejoins Royal Navy operational fleet

The Royal Navy amphibious landing ship HMS Bulwark has returned to the Royal Navy's operational fleet and is ready for any tasking worldwide. 

The ship has emerged on time and budget from an 11-month upgrade and maintenance period by Babcock in its base port of HM Naval Base Devonport, Plymouth.

The project team successfully met significant challenges, including severe adverse weather conditions, to keep the programme on schedule. This was the ship's first docking period since being formally commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 2005.

Having successfully completed three weeks of sea trials the ship has passed the formal fleet date inspection by the team judging her readiness and effectiveness to join the operational fleet.

2-6 Heave! Bulwark hauls in her anchor by hand

THIS new fangled industrial age lark is all very well but sometimes you just need a bit of raw human strength.

Just ask the ship’s company of HMS Bulwark who spent more than five hours hauling in the assault ship’s anchor manually.

The 18,500-tonne ship was anchored in Weymouth Bay carrying out flying trials on her flight deck when sailors realised there was something wrong at the bow.

The buffer and his team found that the anchor simply wouldn’t budge; there was no way of lifting it using mechanical means.

“In my 24 years of service, it’s the first time I have ever witnessed this,” said Bulwark’s buffer CPO ‘George’ Hibbert. “I was reluctant to cut the chain or anchor and let it drop into the sea because they are in limited supply, so we decided to haul it in by hand power alone.”

Which is no mean feat.

Bulwark back at sea

NOW this is a sight to warm the cockles of British hearts in a cold, dark winter.

Dark being particularly pertinent here, for it was in the fading light of a late January afternoon that HMS Bulwark put to sea for the first time in nearly a year.

The assault ship has undergone an eight-month overhaul in the hands of Babcock in Devonport.

In those eight months, some £32m has been spent revamping the ship’s machinery spaces,  magazines, her high voltage propulsion system, advanced communication sensors, computer and IT network, and upgrades to her defensive weapons systems.

Another significant improvement has been Bulwark’s conversion to full tactical night vision for her landing craft and helicopters; the overhaul means that she will now be able to operate two Chinooks simultaneously from her flight deck.