British warship, HMS Portland, docked in Cape Town in early April after three months in West African waters patrolling the coastline for piracy, illegal fishing and drug smuggling.

The ship docked in Cape Town harbour before heading to Simon’s Town, where the ship’s company exercises with the South African Navy twice a year and undertakes maintenance.

“We’d like to do [these exercises] on a more regular basis,” said HMS Portland commander Sarah West during a tour of the ship.

The ship is nearly midway into a seven-month deployment.

“There are not a lot of countries patrolling their areas, let alone their economic zones,” said West, noting that this had left the west coast of Africa open to piracy, human trafficking, illegal fishing and narcotics smuggling.

She said the HMS Portland usually questioned any ship that was not identified. West explained that vessels often switched off their systems as they felt unsafe, but she believed her frigate’s presence in West Africa had played a role in deterring illegal activity.

The crew worked with navies from various countries to strengthen ties and demonstrate the Royal Navy’s commitment to the region.

The HMS Portland is one of 13 Type 23 Duke class frigates serving in the Royal Navy. The Type 23 frigate is the mainstay of the surface fleet in the modern Royal Navy.

During the Cold War it was designed to hunt submarines. Since the end of the Cold War, officers said the ships had become very capable and could be deployed anywhere.

Originally, the frigate was a fast, manoeuvrable craft, required to scout ahead of the main fleet. It was invariably lightly armed. Today’s modern Type 23 frigate was heavily armed and easily compared with similar-sized ships serving in other navies.

On the tour of the HMS Portland, Engineering News was shown the 4.5 MkG Gun used to provide naval fire support at distances of over 10 miles. It can also engage surface targets. Mini-guns, which could fire 3 000 rounds a minute, are positioned around the frigate.

The ship is capable of defending against underwater threats through its Surface Ship Torpedo Defence system and her Magazine Torpedo Launch System.

As antisubmarine operations are required to be as quiet as possible, two gas turbines can be used for sprinting while the two electric motors allow near silent running.

The hull has been built with rounded edges to reduce radar reflections, while all vertical sur- faces have a 70˚ slope, making the ship appear as little more than the size of a fishing vessel on an enemy radar.

As well has having the ability to drop torpedoes, the ship’s helicopter can carry depth charges. The ship’s helicopter can also be re-rolled with a machine gun for boarding and counter piracy operations.

While the frigate is much slower than the extremely fast boats used by drug smugglers, particularly in the Caribbean, one of theHMS Portland’s 200 crew explained that it could send its helicopter up and use weapons to shoot engines of drug smuggling vessels.