Archer class patrol vessel
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Archer_class_patrol_vessel".

HMS Smiter
Class overview
Name:	Archer
Builders:	Watercraft Marine Vosper Thornycroft Ailsa Shipbuilding Company
Operators:	Royal Navy
Active:	16
General characteristics
Type:	patrol / training vessels
Displacement:	49 tons (Raider, Tracker; 54 tons)
Length:	20.8 m
Beam:	5.8 m
Draught:	1.8 m
Propulsion:	2 shafts, Rolls Royce M800T diesels, 1,590 bhp (Tracker, Raider; MTU V12 diesels)
Speed:	14 knots (Tracker, Raider; 22 knots)(Hull designed to reach 45 knots (83 km/h), but limited due to the type of engine fitted)
Range:	550 nmi (1,020 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	5 (RN), 1 training officer (RNR), 12 students (URNU) or 12 (RN)
Sensors and processing systems:	Decca 1216 navigation radar
Armament:	3 x 7.62 mm L7 GPMG (Cyprus Sqn.) (can be fitted with 20 mm cannon on fo'c'sle)

The Archer-class is a class of patrol and training vessel in service with the British Royal Navy (RN).

History & operations

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. After that company went into liquidation, the balance of the order was completed by Vosper Thornycroft.

University Royal Naval Unit Archer class HMS Charger (P292) and HMS Trumpeter (P294) in 2004. The vessels peacetime role is to train university students in navigation and seamanship.

The Archers were initially used as RN 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 Examples were transferred to the RN for similar duties as their Archer-class brethren.

In 1998 two additional vessels of this design were commissioned into the RN from Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, to replace HMS Loyal Watcher and Loyal Chancellor as URNU training vessels to Cambridge and Oxford Universities respectively. This brought the total of Archer class vessels in the RN to 16, all of which are assigned to the 1st Patrol Boat Squadron (1PBS). Since 1991, 14 have been attached to URNUs (one per unit) under the command of a Lieutenant, RN. The remaining 2 vessels form the Cyprus Squadron. Ranger and Trumpeter were also formerly allocated to the Gibraltar Squadron for guard ship and search and rescue duties, but were replaced by the dedicated Scimitar-class. In this role they could be armed with pintle-mounted L7 7.62 mm GPMG machine guns.

All of the ships (with the exception of Ranger and Trumpeter) are due to reach the end of their operational lives in 2013.

Vessels

See also

• University Royal Naval Unit

References

• Britain's Modern Royal Navy, Paul Beaver, Patrick Stephens Limited, 1996, ISBN 1-85260-442-5
• Today's Royal Navy in Colour, Jeremy Flack, Greenwich Editions, 1996, ISBN 0-86288-089-0

External links

• Official Royal Navy Archer-class page