HMS Forth (P222): The Patrol Ship That Delivered Vaccines to the World's Remotest Island

The First of a New Batch

HMS Forth is a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel, the first ship of this enhanced variant, incorporating 29 modifications and improvements over the baseline Amazonas design the class was originally derived from. Steel cutting began at BAE Systems' Govan shipyard in Glasgow on 10 October 2014, and she was launched in September 2016 using semi-submersible barge flotation rather than the more traditional dynamic launch method, before being formally christened at the Scotstoun shipyard on 9 March 2017.

She departed for contractor sea trials on 31 August 2017, was accepted by the Ministry of Defence on 25 January 2018, and arrived at Portsmouth on 26 February that year.

HMS Forth commissioned on 13 April 2018 at HMNB Portsmouth, with her crew transferring from HMS Tyne to bring the new vessel operational, marking a genuine changing of the guard between the Royal Navy's older and newer generations of offshore patrol vessels.

A Rocky Start

HMS Forth's early service was marked by some particularly troubling teething problems. In June 2018, electrical system faults were discovered aboard, along with sheared bolts whose heads had, remarkably, been glued back on rather than properly repaired, defects serious enough to send her into dry dock for major rectification work lasting over three months, with BAE Systems covering the costs while HMS Tyne was reactivated to cover her patrol duties in the meantime, a notably inauspicious start for a brand new ship meant to represent the next generation of British offshore patrol capability.

Fishery Protection and a Russian Escort

Once properly operational, HMS Forth carried out operational sea training in British waters through June 2019, and that year escorted a Russian Navy patrol ship through UK waters and the English Channel, part of the Royal Navy's routine but important task of monitoring foreign naval activity close to British waters. She conducted her inaugural fishery protection patrol that same year, and made her first overseas port visit, to Gibraltar, in August 2019, gradually building up the operational experience that would prepare her for a considerably more demanding posting.

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Guardship of the Falklands

HMS Forth arrived at East Cove Military Port in the Falkland Islands on 13 January 2020, replacing HMS Clyde as the islands' permanent guardship, a role of genuine strategic and symbolic importance given the Falklands' history and Britain's ongoing commitment to their defence. Her most memorable single mission during this posting came on 21 April 2021, when she delivered Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Tristan da Cunha, one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth, in a mission that allowed the complete immunisation of the island's entire population, a moving piece of humanitarian work carried out by a ship whose usual duties centred on patrol and deterrence rather than public health delivery.

HMS Forth also provided support to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands during her South Atlantic posting, and took part in exercises alongside RAF Typhoon interceptors, helping maintain a credible defensive presence across some of the most remote and strategically significant British territory anywhere in the world.

Refit and Rotation

HMS Forth sailed to Gibraltar for refit in February and March 2023, temporarily replaced in the Falklands by HMS Medway during the maintenance period. She emerged from her refit sporting a new dazzle camouflage paint scheme matching her sister ships HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, a striking modern take on the disruptive camouflage patterns first developed during the First World War, and completed her refit in September 2023, returning to the South Atlantic to resume her guardship duties.

At the start of 2026, HMS Forth was recalled to the United Kingdom, once again replaced in the Falklands by HMS Medway, closing out an extended and truly significant stint as the islands' guardship, one that had included everything from routine fishery protection and sovereignty patrols to a remarkably remarkable humanitarian mission to one of the remotest inhabited places on the planet.

Now in Refit on Teesside

By mid-2026, HMS Forth had moved north for a further refit on Teesside, her first return to a UK yard since 2019, with no future tasking yet announced for the ship.

This is a live article which will be updated when more information is available.

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