A ceremony was held to inaugurate Bahrain’s newly acquired warships, namely the “RBNS Al-Zubara”, “Al-Areen”, “Mashhoor”, “Al-Daibal”, “Askar”, “Jaw”, “Al-Hidd” and “Taghleeb”, marking the kingdom’s celebrations of the BDF’s 53rd anniversary. The vessels are all ex-UK RAN types.
Bahrain’s most modern warship RBNS Al Zubara (Ex-HMS Clyde River-Class offshore patrol vessel of British Navy) and a number of patrol vessels in the Royal Bahraini Navy of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) were inaugurated yesterday.
The commissioning ceremony showed RBNS “Al-Zubara” patrol warship has now been rearmed with an Aselsan Smash remotely controlled weapon station (RCWS), .50 cal machine guns (MGs), and M134 Miniguns.
The HMS Clyde is a decommissioned offshore patrol vessel and is the tenth ship in the British Royal Navy to bear the name. She was launched on 14 June 2006 in Portsmouth Naval Base by VT Group shipbuilders in Portsmouth, England, and is the fourth vessel of the River class, with a displacement of 2,000 tones and a 30 mm Oerlikon KCB gun in place of the 20 mm gun fitted to Tyne River-class ships.
The HMS Clyde has length 81.5 m (267 ft 5 in) hull, a top speed of 21 kn (39 km/h), a 30 mm cannon, two miniguns, and mountings for five general-purpose machine guns. Clyde’s elongated hull permits a 20-meter strengthened flight deck able to accommodate a Merlin-sized helicopter.
The ship has a full load displacement between 1,850 and 2,000 tones. She is powered by two Ruston 12RK 270 engines developing 4,125 kW (5,532 hp) at 1,000 rpm.