Interest confirmed in former Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Atherstone
Tied up in an unseen corner of Portsmouth Naval Base, the former UK RN mine countermeasure vessel HMS Atherstone is nearing its end, stripped for parts and machinery to maintain the diminishing Hunt class fleet.
Listed for sale by the UK’s Defence Equipment Sales Authority (DESA) in Q2 of this year, HMS Atherstone was decommissioned in 2017 along with another of its sister ships, HMS Quorn, after 30 years of service.
The latter vessel has since been sold to Lithuania, netting a tidy sum and avoiding the £750,000 ($1 million) cost to dispose of the vessel.
Devoid of machinery, the former HMS Atherstone is described as being sound for towing but no longer in running condition.
A DESA spokesperson confirmed that the authority had received expressions of interest for the vessel, the deadline
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