HMS Spey is a Batch 2 offshore patrol vessel of the Royal Navy. Named after the River Spey in Scotland, she is the eighth Royal Navy ship to be named Spey and is the fifth Batch 2 River-class vessel to commission and is forward deployed long-term to the Indo-Pacific region with her sister ship .
On 6 November 2013 it was announced that the Royal Navy had signed an Agreement in Principle to build three new offshore patrol vessels, based on the River-class design, at a fixed price of £348 million including spares and support. In August 2014, BAE Systems signed the contract to build the ships on the Clyde. The Ministry of Defence stated that the Batch 2 ships are capable of being used for constabulary duties such as "counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and anti-smuggling operations". According to BAE Systems, the vessels are designed to deploy globally, conducting anti-piracy, counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling tasks currently conducted by frigates and destroyers. A £287m order, for two further ships, and Spey, and support for all five Batch 2 ships, was announced on 8 December 2016.[1]
Batch 2 ships such as Spey include some 29 modifications and enhancements over the built by BAE Systems for the Brazilian Navy.[2] Tamar and Spey have further modifications such as carbon dioxide reducing catalytic converters.[3]
Spey was formally named on 3 October 2019.[4] She began contractor sea trials in September 2020,[5] and after they were completed, left the Clyde on 28 October for the delivery voyage to Portsmouth.[6]
On 7 January 2021, HMS Spey was handed over to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. In late spring 2021, Spey received "dazzle" camouflage in Falmouth in preparation for deploying to the Indo-Pacific region with sister ship .[7] Spey was commissioned into the Royal Navy at her affiliated town, Invergordon on 18 June 2021.[8] On 7 September, Spey and sister Tamar departed Portsmouth to be forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific region for a minimum of five years.[9]
On 21 January 2022, Spey was deployed to Tonga as relief aid due to the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami.[10] In March a survey by the ship revealed that Henderson Island - part of the Pitcairn chain in the south Pacific had been mislocated in a survey in 1937 by 1miles.[11]
In 2023, Spey was deployed to Australia.[12]
In 2024 HMS Spey made her inaugural visit to India following in the footsteps of sister vessel HMS Tamar and anchored in Port Blair, a strategic port in the Andaman and Nicobar Island groups following exercises conducted with Indian Navy Patrol boats.[13] In April, the ship embarked a Puma unmanned air vehicle team from 700 Naval Air Squadron for operations in the East China Sea.[14]