Class of patrol and training vessel of the Royal Navy
The "Archer" class (or P2000) is a class of patrol and training vessel in service with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, commonly referred to as a "fast training boat". Most are assigned to Coastal Forces Squadron. and are armed and provide maritime force protection to high value shipping in the Firth of Clyde and are most commonly employed as escorts for submarines transiting to Faslane. and were also armed during their deployment on maritime force protection duties with the Gibraltar Squadron from 2020-2022.
Development.
Ten vessels were ordered as the P2000 class, based on a design of an Omani coastguard cutter, from Watercraft Marine. They are twin-shaft vessels with moulded glass-reinforced plastic hulls of displacement. After that company went into liquidation, the balance of the order was completed by Vosper Thornycroft.
The "Archer"s were initially used as Royal Navy patrol craft and as training tenders for the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and University Royal Naval Units (URNU). Four identical vessels were ordered for the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) as "Example"-class tenders. When that service was disbanded in 1994, the "Example"s were transferred to the Royal Navy for similar duties as their "Archer"-class brethren (under the same names under which they served as "XSVs", all of which begin with the first syllable "Ex"). Until 2005, the four "Example"s were painted with a black hull.
In 1998 two additional vessels ( and ) of this design were commissioned into the Royal Navy from Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, to replace and as URNU training vessels for the two newest URNUs, serving Cambridge and Oxford Universities respectively ("Raider" was later transferred to Bristol URNU whilst became the ship of Cambridge URNU). This brought the total of "Archer"-class vessels in the Royal Navy to sixteen, of which fourteen form the Coastal Forces Squadron Squadron (formerly the 1st Patrol Boat Squadron), each one formerly attached to an URNU (one per unit) under the command of a lieutenant. The remaining two vessels ( and ), having formed the Cyprus Squadron from 2003 to 2010, and URNU vessels before that, returned to the UK in April 2010 to form the Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron, performing security duties within HMNB Clyde.
In 2012 "Dasher" and "Pursuer" were replaced by "Raider" and "Tracker" - these can be identified by a number of pintle-mounted L7 7.62 mm GPMG machine guns and armour plating. and were also formerly allocated to the Gibraltar Squadron for guard ship and search and rescue duties, but were replaced by the dedicated . These two ships were also used during the Thames River Pageant, escorting the Royal Barge during Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. Unlike the remainder of the class, both these ships remain capable of mounting a 20 mm cannon on the fo'c'sle.
The NATO designation of a P2000 is "PBR", denoting a "patrol boat - riverine and harbours".
Notes.
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