HMS Cattistock completes NATO deployment
Royal Navy minehunter HMS Cattistock has completed a four month deployment in the Baltic Sea with Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1.
The vessel took part in a series of multinational exercises and operations during its deployment, with the focus on clearing historic mines from the seabed.
Cattistock spent time in Norwegian waters, locating and identifying ordnance dropped during the Second World War to disrupt German shipping in Oslo.
This was followed by navigational training off Denmark, joint force protection exercises off Holland and then two weeks in Zeebrugge testing seamanship skills in a variety of challenging conditions, including rafting, towing and damage control exercises.
The deployment ended with mine clearance operations off the north coast of France, with the vessel’s crew successfully identifying and safely disposing of a historic 1000lb US air dropped bomb.
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