Echo arriving in the Tyne for Northumbrian Quay this afternoon.

Echo sailing in the murk this morning. Can anyone read the signal?

Echo has now paid off into extended readiness, joining Wave Knight in the Pompey dockyard basin. Bet you neither will sail for Britain again, both eminently saleable but will be flogged abroad for next to nothing. We will never learn how much our assets are flogged for, as usual.

And there is more, here are the other RN warships paid off during this May 2022 alone.

2 nuke subs Talent and Trenchant to long term storage and disposal in Devonport, both officially de commissioned today. That just leaves Triumph and 4 Astutes, oh yeah, plus 4 V bombers. 50 years ago the RN had 32 subs, 10 were nukes.

Minehunter Shoreham heading to Rosyth for disposal, the intention is RN mine sweeping will be done remotely by crew less boats. Sorry, clue less, which comes with a huge fail warning.

Interesting article in the "Navy Lookout" an independent publication in regards to the R.N. and "The Way Forward" in the future RN written by a former member of the "Andrew".
Minesweeping/Minehunting is a dangerous business for Ships Crews even in so called peacetime operations, a trip up to the Baltic was an interesting time, remote Sweeping has been going on in the RN for some time now, the Americans tried sweeping with Sled towed by a Helicopter, we tried towing a "Ton" Class with a Helicopter over 60 years ago!!! Very Brave Helicopter Crews
My R.N. Handbook is in the the Loft somewhere but the Signal should read "Thanks Newcastle for a great run ashore" which was well known by RN Crews.

HMS ECHO at Kristiansand 10.08.05

With rotational manning her machinery hours will be pretty high, has she been in for her half life? Technology has moved on a pace since she first entered Service with a lot of equipment now being on Lease Terms, although she will have had updates I would guess. The Carriers have took a lot of manning depleting the rest of the Fleet of men/women.
I was surprised to see how much equipment on/in today's RAF Aircraft is on Lease!

Now formally Decommissioned at Portsmouth after two decades of RN Service most probably after all the Leased equipment has been removed