First HPB-1500 PPC for the UK & Gibraltar MoD Police launched
Marine Specialised Technology Group (MST), alongside design partner BMT, announced that the first Police Patrol Craft (PPC) being built for the UK Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) and the Gibraltar Ministry of Defence Police (GDP), has officially been launched on to the River Mersey and will now undertake a series of trials.
Image courtesy MST / BMT
Awarded in March 2021, The Police Patrol Craft (PPC) contract is a six-year programme that will see delivery of eighteen state-of-the-art patrol craft to various Police units around the UK and Gibraltar.
The Patrol Craft will be used to ensure protection of major Royal Naval Assets, including capital ships and submarines, as well as installations in and around UK dockyard ports, Gibraltar Naval Base and wherever else necessary.
The launch of the first craft is a major milestone coming some 18 months after contract award. The first part of the contract has seen the craft design being completed by MST’s design partners BMT who carried out the vessel design, with the build of the craft being completed at MST’s new shipyard facility on the Wirral.
After a successful setting to work phase, the craft was launched on to the River Mersey from MST’s slipway in Bromborough and will now go through several weeks of trials before being presented to MoD Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) for acceptance.
In the early part of the first craft’s life, it will primarily be used as an educational platform, firstly for MST to provide training to the MDP Training Team. From here, MDP Trainers will then be able to provide high-level guidance and support to officers who will crew and operate each craft that enters service.
Craft 1, named Osprey, will be closely followed by a new sister craft on a rolling three month programme, with the second craft anticipated to be delivered in the early part of 2023.