- Yes
- No
History: HMS Echo is one of 2 multi-purpose Echo class hydrographic vessels. This class was built mostly for survey missions but was also designed for minesweeper duties. This class was also the first in the royal navy to have azimuth thrusters.
Echo was ordered on the 19th of June 2000, launched on the 2nd of March 2002 and commissioned on the 7th of March 2003 after being built by Appledore Shipbuilders.
Her career begun on 2004 where she would conduct survey missions in the Persian Gulf before returning to the UK in April 2005.
The next 5 years would be spent on both surveillance and diplomacy missions around Asia, including Hong Kong, South Korea, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
She then went to Seychelles on February 2012 to assist in anti piracy training and visit the capital, Victoria and then returned on the 16th of August 2012 to Devonport.
In July of 2013, Echo was surveying approach to the Libyan ports Tripoli and Khoms to look for potentially hazardous wrecks to chart. In just 10 days, Echo found the wrecks of:
1 ocean liner
2 merchant ships
1 landing craft (suspected to be Polocnny class Ibn Qis.)
2 barges
2 sunken pontoons
2 fishing vessels
6 shipping containers
On the 20th of March 2014, Echo was deployed nearly 2,500km south of Perth to assist in the search of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 by Australian request.
From January 2016 to the 4th of November of that year, Echo would assist in fishery protection to take over HMS Mersey’s job while she was deployed to the Caribbean. On the 4th of November, Echo relived sister ship HMS Enterprise of her duty of migrant patrol.
On the 21st of December 2019, Echo was visited by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in Odessa during a freedom of navigation maneuver.
Echo was most likely lowered to a lower readiness status in May 2022 before her decommissioning on the 30th of June 2022 in Portsmouth.
As of writing this, Echo is still around although what will happen to the ship is uncertain. Her sister ship, Enterprise was sold to Bangladesh in February 2026.
Specifications:
Crew -72
Armament- 2x 20mm oerlikon cannons, 3x 7.62mm M134 mini guns and 2x 7.62mm FN MAG machine guns
Width- 16.8m
Length- 90.6m
Draught- 5.5m
Displacement- 3,470 tonnes
Top speed- 28kmh
https://web.archive.org/web/20120217121536/http://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/3641
https://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-03-20/uk-sending-hms-echo-to-assist-in-malaysia-plane-search/
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2022/june/30/220630-hms-echo-decommissioning