HMS Sabre
- Yes
- No
History: Both HMS Scimitar and Sabre (formally MV Grey Fox and MV Grey Wolf respectively) were commissioned on the 31st 2003 but had already took part in Operation Lifespan prior. Both boats were built by built by Halmatic ltd (Scimitar in Portsmouth and Sabre in Southampton).
Table of class commission
The first task for both boats was inland anti terrorism operations as part of Operation Lifespan from 1993. Both boats had their own special dock at Massereene barracks. They mostly did maritime counter terrorism, surveillance, intelligence and anti-smuggling operations.
When commissioned by the Royal Navy, the two boats were assigned to the Gibraltar Squadron, freeing Archer class patrol boats Trumpeter and Ranger so they could instead go to the Cyprus squadron.
In November of that year, Scimitar was at the centre of a diplomatic spat between Spain and the UK after Spain claimed the boat used a Spanish flag as target practice while the British MOD said it was a NATO maritime signal flag.
On the 10th of April 2009, Sabre responded to Spanish police vessel entering Gibraltar unannounced. It warned the vessel to leave, which it did after consulting with it’s superiors.
On the 3rd of May 2011 and on the 4th of April 2017, Scimitar was dispatched to intercept and challenge Serviola class patrol boat Atalaya and Descubierta class corvette Infanta Cristina respectively. Both vessels left with no further issue however the later had to be intercepted again in November 8th 2017.
In February 2018, The Scimitar class boats became the smallest commissioned royal navy vessels after survey launch HMS Gleamer was decommissioned.
Both boats were eventually replaced by Arrow class patrol boats Dasher and Pursuer in September 2020, returning to Portsmouth.
On March 30th 2022 both vessels were decommissioned together at a joint ceremony. While Scimitar became medical vessel, MV Lady Jean, Sabre is awaiting it’s disposal.
Both boats have been succeed by the Cutlass class patrol boats since, which as of writing, serve in the Gibraltar squadron.
HMS Scimitar with HMS Daring
Specifications:
Displacement: 24t
Length: 16m
Width: 3.1m
Armament: 2x 7.62mm General purpose machine guns in the stern
Engines: 2x MAN 2480LXE diesels (1360hp)
Sensor:Racal-Decca Bridgemaster 360, I band navigation radar
Speed:59km/h
Complement:5-7
Sources:
https://www.boat24.com/en/boatengines/man-d2848-lxe-680cv/detail/625812/
https://web.archive.org/web/20081110004130/http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.5754
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/04/new-spanish-patrol-boat-incursion-gibraltars-waters/