HMS Tamar (P233): Dazzle Camouflage, the Jersey Fishing Dispute, and a Race to Samoa

Built on the Clyde

HMS Tamar was built by BAE Systems on the Clyde, the fourth of the Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessels, lowered into the water on 10 October 2018 and commissioned into service on 17 December 2020. She incorporates around twenty-nine modifications and enhancements over the related Amazonas-class corvette BAE Systems built for the Brazilian Navy, and carries a 30mm gun along with modern Kelvin Hughes and Terma radar systems.

The First Dazzle Ship Since the War

In April 2021, Tamar became the first Royal Navy warship painted in dazzle camouflage since the Second World War, reviving the striking geometric paint schemes originally designed to confuse enemy observers, a genuinely eye-catching tribute to naval history on a thoroughly modern hull.

Jersey and the G7

The following month, Tamar deployed to Jersey during the tense post-Brexit fishing disputes between Britain and France, a visible show of support during a genuinely fraught diplomatic standoff, before providing security for the G7 summit held off Cornwall that June, two very different but equally high-profile home-waters assignments within the space of a few weeks.

Forward Deployed to the Indo-Pacific

On 7 September 2021, Tamar and her sister ship HMS Spey departed Portsmouth to be forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific region for a minimum of five years, taking in operations off China, patrols around the British Indian Ocean Territory, exercises with French naval forces, and seabed warfare exercises in Australian waters.

A 650-Mile Race to a Sinking Ship

In October 2024, Tamar responded to the grounding of the New Zealand naval vessel HMNZS Manawanui off Samoa, covering 650 miles in just twenty-three hours to reach the scene, where she assisted in protecting the wreck and recovered the ship's navigation record book, exactly the kind of rapid, consequential response that justifies keeping patrol vessels forward deployed so far from home.

Still on Station

HMS Tamar remains forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific, carrying out sovereignty protection, fisheries patrols, counter-terrorism, anti-piracy and anti-smuggling operations, a genuinely wide-ranging remit for a single patrol vessel and a clear sign of how central this class has become to Britain's presence in the region.