HMS Enterprise in Dartmouth, 2008
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name: | HMS Enterprise |
Ordered: | 19 June 2000 |
Builder: | Appledore Shipbuilders |
Launched: | 2 May 2002 |
Sponsored by: | Lady Sally Forbes |
Commissioned: | 17 October 2003 |
Homeport: | HMNB Devonport, Plymouth |
Identification: |
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Motto: |
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Status: | in active service |
Badge: | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Echo-class survey vessel |
Displacement: | 3,740 t (3,680 long tons; 4,120 short tons) |
Length: | 90.6 m (297 ft 3 in) |
Beam: | 16.8 m (55 ft 1 in) |
Draught: | 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Range: | 9,300 nmi (17,200 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Endurance: | 35 days |
Boats & landing craft carried: |
Survey motor boat |
Complement: | 72 |
Sensors and processing systems: |
Integrated survey system |
Armament: |
HMS Enterprise, the tenth ship to bear this name, is a multi-role survey vessel - hydrographic oceanographic (SVHO) of the Royal Navy. She has a sister ship, HMS Echo, and together they make up the Echo class of survey vessels.
Echo and Enterprise are the first Royal Navy ships to be fitted with azimuth thrusters. Both azimuth thrusters and the bow thruster can be controlled through the integrated navigation system by a joystick providing high manoeuvrability. Complete control and monitoring for power generation and propulsion, together with all auxiliary plant systems, tank gauging and damage control functions is provided through the integrated platform management system (IPMS), accessible through workstations around the ship.
Enterprise and her sister ship are designed to conduct survey operations in support of submarines or amphibious operations. She can provide almost real-time tailored environmental information, and also has a secondary role as a mine countermeasure tasking authority platform, for which she is capable of embarking a dedicated mine counter measures command team.
Built by Appledore Shipbuilders under the prime contractor Vosper Thornycroft, Enterprise was launched on 27 April 2002, officially named by the ship's sponsor, Lady Sally Forbes, at her naming ceremony on 2 May 2002, and commissioned on 18 October 2003. She is designed and built to Lloyd's Naval Ship Rules.
Enterprise's crew consists of 72 personnel, with 48 on board at any one time, working a cycle of 70 days on, 30 days off. The ship can accommodate 81 personnel if necessary. The ship is operationally available 330 days a year. In support of this high availability, all accommodation and recreational facilities are designed for an unusual (in a warship) degree of comfort. All personnel share double cabins with private facilities, except the captain and executive officer who both have single cabins.
Enterprise's first operational overseas deployment was to the Mediterranean in October 2004, returning to Devonport in April 2005. She participated in a NATO exercise and conducted oceanographic and hydrographic surveys.