Past Navy of New Cromer
Aircraft Carriers
NCNS Cromer and Victoria in as completed condition in 1968. NCNS Cromer was completed in 1965 to the same design as HMS Hermes was completed in 1959, NCNS Victoria was built to a even more modified design and was completed in 1968.
Cromer officially entered service in 1966 with Victoria following in 1969, throughout the 1970's and early 80's the vessels were involved in numerous african conflicts and sabre rattling in the Middle East. the Carriers were involved in numerous operations with the RN of Great Britain and in some operations with the navy's of France and the US. The Carrier Victoria was involved in the 1979 Vela nuclear test and it is believed one of here Buccaneers dropped the device in the test. during the late 1980's the carriers aircraft were beginning to show there age and were becoming harder and harder to maintain.
New Cromer having shown interest in the UK's Harrier programme and indeed the conversion of HMS Hermes did a feasibility study on converting its two carriers.
General Statistics
Class: centaur class carrier
Type; Light Fleet Carrier.
No Planned: 8 for the RN (reduced to 4 Ships 5 and 6 became New Cromer’s)
No Built: 6 (4 RN and 2 NC)
Retired: New Cromer 2, RN 4 (1 Ex RN still in use with India)
Names: NCNS Cromer and NCNS Victoria
Builder; Harland and Wolff Belfast, UK, Hulls, Fitted out and completed New Cromer Defence Systems, New Cromer.
Laid Down; Both Keels laid in 1955, construction halted till 1958 when NC Purchased the 25% complete hulls. Construction restarted to modified designs in 1959 and 1960.
Launched; 1963 and 1965.
Commissioned; 1968 and 1969
Home Port; Victoria Naval Station.
Pennant Numbers; R56, R57
Displacement: 22,000 tons 28,700 tons full load as built. (Cromer 23,650 and 29,100 after refit)
Length: 737 ft. (224.6 m) as built. Cromer 774ft 9in after refit.
Beam: 130 ft. (39.6 m) as Built. Cromer 148ft after refit.
Draught: 28.5 ft. (8.7 m)
Installed power: 78,000 hp (58,000 kW)
Propulsion: 2 shaft geared steam turbines, 4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems: Radar Type 982, Type 983, Type 275, Type 974,
Armament: 32 40mm Bofors guns (2 × 6), (8 × 2), (4 × 1), Cromer after refit 2 Sea Cat launchers.
Armour: 1 inch flight deck, Hangar deck
Aircraft carried: Original Air wing, 12 Vixens, 7 Buccaneers, 5 Gannets and 6 Wessex or Sea King. Cromer after Refit, Upto 28 Harrier GR5 or 7 and Up to 9 Sea King.
with a serious fire forcing NCNS Victoria out of service in 1991 only NCNS Cromer was rebuilt as a commando carrier able to operate harriers and was recommissioned in 1992. She served for a further 10 years being involved in several other african and middle eastern conflicts, peace keeping roles and patrols. She was not involved in the first Gulf war as she was in refit at the time but between 1992 and 1998 was deployed several times to help enforce no fly zones in the Gulf. Plans to replace the carrier stretched back to 1989 and design work had been slowly progressing on 2 new CVN's but delays kept knocking back the in service dates of these an Cromer was forced to soldier on. After a number of years operating all over the indian, southern oceans and gulf area and suffering from regular machinery failures she was finally decommissioned in 2002 after a long and hard career being temporally replaced by the 2 Oceanic class Assault carriers till the arrival of New Cromer's 2 CVN's from 2006 .
Cruiser
1961 Helicopter Cruiser design
Commissioned in 1971, 3 of these ships were planned, they would provide ASW capabilities and as escorts for New Cromers 2 Centaur Class carriers. Ships 2 and 3 were canceled shortly after the first was started due to budgetary constraints meaning NCNS Courage was a unique vessel. The design stems from a RN helicopter cruiser study from 1961 that was not pursued in the UK but New Cromer’s showed considerable interest. The ships were the first large military ships built in New Cromer by the then New Cromer Defence Systems. Electronics and weapons system sourced from the UK. Construction began in late 1963 and the ship was launched in 1967 and was commissioned the same day NCNS Victoria also arrived with the fleet in 1969 the 2 would see there careers somewhat linked till Victoria was decommissioned in 1991. Armed with Sea Slug and a twin 4,5in turret the ship took the place of a County Class destroyer when working with a carrier group but offered much greater ASW capability with up to 6 Helicopters, sea slug was withdrawn in 1994 along with the counties and the aft area of the ship was rebuilt. Other missions which the ship saw regular work included insertion of Marine commandos and Humanitarian aid work. After the fire on NCNS Victoria in 1991 there was consideration to fit the ship with a 12’ ski jump to allow Harriers to be operated as an interim short term solution to New Cromer's carrier problems but these plans were dropped when the Oceanic Class LPH ships were finally ordered with ski jumps to fill in till arrival of the much delayed CVN’s. The ship was retired in 1999 after 30 years hard service and was scrapped in 2002.
General Statistics
Class: Courage Class.
Type; Helicopter Through Deck Cruiser.
No Planned: 3.
No Built: 1. 2 Cancelled before construction began.
No Building: 0.
Retired. 1 (1999).
Names: NCNS Courage.
Builder; New Cromer Defence Systems.
Laid Down; 1st September 1963.
Launched; 1967.
Commissioned; 1969 to 1999.. (Ship was officially held in reserve from 1995-9).
Home Port; Cromer Naval Station.
Pennant Numbers; C51
Displacement; 13,400 tons fully laden
Length; 595ft (181.3meters).
Beam; 78.5ft (23.9meters) (waterline), 122.5ft (37.3meters) (flight deck).
Draught; 29.5ft (8.9meters)
Propulsion; COGAG 4 × Gas Turbines on 2 shafts.
Speed; 29+ knots
Range; 4400+ Nautical miles (without RAS)
Compliment; 212 crew, 80 embarked air wing, up to 45 marines.
Main Radars/Sonar; Type 965 air search radar with twin bedstead AKE-2, Type 992Q low angle search radar, Type 901M radar, Type 2016 sonar (fitted post 1990).
Armament; 1x Twin gunned turret with 4.5inch (114mm) guns Mark N6, 2x Oerlikon 20mm Cannons, 1x Aft mounted Seaslug GWS.2 SAM with 24 Rounds also capable of firing the GWS.2N, 2x GWS 22 Seacat SAM.
Aircraft; Upto 6 Sea King sized Helicopter’s
Aviation Facilities: Flight deck, hangar and Lift.
HMS Lion Joined New Cromer's Navy in 1972 after her career finished with the RN, she entered full commission in 1975, she was at the time the only Cruiser in New Cromer's navy and was used as a flagship up till the arrival of her sister ship Blake in 1983. Her main role was shore bombardment and fire support for marine operations, Flag ship duties. She was retired in 1987 and was used as a source of spares for Blake until being scrapped in 1991. in her 18 year career with the navy she received the nickname Jinxo after being involved in 4 instances of running aground, 2 collisions with other vessels, a number of accidents on board 2 resulting in fatalities and in 1986 she was nearly or was hit (depending on how you look at it) by an Exocet missile fired by a County Class destroyer during a live fire exercise were NCNS Lion was 10 mile out of position and ended up being locked up by the missile, fortunately last second course change resulted in the missile glancing off of the A turret and tumbling end over end into the sea 100yards beyond the ship.
General Statistics
Class: Tiger Class.
Type: Light cruiser
No Built: 3 For RN (all Bought by New Cromer eventually but only 2 would serve)
Retired: NCNS Lion 1987, NCNS Blake 2008 (Tiger never entered service with New Cromer being stripped for spares and scrapped in 1984).
Names: NCNS Lion, HMS Tiger and NCNS Blake (Tiger never r- named)
Builder; John Brown and Co, Glasgow, UK and Fairfield’s Glasgow ,UK.
Laid Down; From 1941
Launched; From 1945 .
Commissioned; RN 1959, NC 1972 and 1986.
Home Port; Cromer Naval station (NCNS Lion) and Victoria Naval Station (NCNS Blake)
Pennant Numbers; C34 Lion, C99 Blake
Displacement: 11,700 tons (12,080 tons after conversion of Blake and Tiger)
Length: 555.5 ft (169 m)
Beam: 64 ft (19.5 m)
Draught: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Installed power: 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Propulsion: Four Admiralty-type three drum boilers
Four shaft Parsons steam turbines
Speed: 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h)
Range: 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h)
Complement: 716 (885 after conversion of Blake and Tiger)
Armament: As built: 2 × twin 6 in guns QF Mark N5 with RP15 (hydraulic) or RP53 (electric) RPC (One later removed from Blake and Tiger, 3 × twin 3 in guns QF Mark N1. As helicopter cruisers (Blake & Tiger): 1 × twin 6 in guns QF Mark N5 with RP15 (hydraulic) or RP53 (electric) RPC, 1 × twin 3 in guns QF Mark N1 2 × quad GWS.21 Sea Cat missile launchers, Blake later received 1 Sextuplet SeaWolf launcher and 2 Phanlanx 20mm Guns.
Armour: Belt 3.5 in - 3.25 in, Bulkheads 2 in - 1.5 in, Turrets 2 in - 1 in, Crowns of engine room and magazines 2 in
Aircraft carried (After Conversion): 4 × helicopters (originally Wessex then Sea King).
HMS Blake along with her sister Tiger for spare were bought by New Cromer in 1983, work had been carrried out on the ships in 1982 in the UK with a veiw to re activate them for the Faulklands war but this was halted when it became apparrent the war would be over before they were ready. New Cromer bought both ships Blake to return to service and use as at first a Helicopter cruiser fro marrine operations but she later saw use as an ASW platform, flag ship, casualty reception vessel. Tiger was scrapped in 1984 and any usable spare retained for Blake that had been deemed in better shape.
NCNS Blake was given a moderate deffensive upgrade in 1987. The opertunity was taken following a nèed for some extensive repairs after a collision with a USN ship during an exorcise off Italy. She was decommissioned in 2007 after the arrival of the Bay and Albion class vessels.
Destroyers
5 County Class destroyers were bought in 1966 and formed the destroyer force for New Cromer as Carrier escorts and general suface combatants. The 5 ships were heavily worked and were involved in many operations off the East African coast, the Gulf and Indian and Souther Oceans. One of the class was involved in a major incident in the Gulf whist enforcing a blockade of an Iraqi port in the mid 1980's an Iraqi oil tanker refused to slow and be boarded by another New Cromer warship after firing a number of warning shots across the tankers bow and still refusing to halt NCNS Caracal loosed of a Sea Slug missile to deter the captain of the merchant ship from proceeding the missile which was supposed to fly over the tankers bow, accidentally struck the mast at the bow of the tanker crashing onto the tankers for-deck the remaining propellent started a major fire which soon engulfed the entire ship 8 of the crew were killed and after 18hours of the tanker floating ablaze a huge explosion tore the ship apart. A subsequent enquiry resulted in a court marshal and dismissal of 5 of the ships command staff and the captain being sentenced to 6 years in military prison. NCNS Oryx was involved in the 1983-84 New Cromer/Yemen/Oman Crisis and this ship was responsible for the Downing of a Pakistani Airways DC10 in November of 1983, the aircraft was carrying 164 passengers (1/2 Load) after sustaining severe damage to the tail plane after the Sea Slug hit, the pilot was able to glide the crippled airliner over Oman and crash land it in an Oman Airport. 64 died and 86 were badly injured, 14 people including the pilots walked from the wreckage without injury), later investigation showed that the crew of Oryx had mistaken the plane for a Yemen military aircraft and after not receiving any reply from repeated attempts to get the plane to alter coarse fired, it was later realised the frequency they were trying to call the plane on wasn't being listened into by the aircraft hence why there was no reply. the incident led to New Cromer introducing a strict identify before fire policy.
General Statistics
Class: County Class Destroyer.
Type; Guided Missile Destroyer.
No Built: 5
Retired: 5 last in 1994.
Names: NCNS Addax, NCNS Oryx, NCNS Bongo, NCNS Bontebok and NCNS Caracal.
Builder; Fairfield’s, Glasgow UK and Swan Hunter, Newcastle UK.
Laid Down; First 1961
Launched: First 1964
Commissioned; From 1967
Home Port; Cromer Naval Station and Victoria Naval Station.
Pennant Numbers; TBA
Displacement: 6,200 tons
Length: 520.16 ft. (158.54 m)
Beam: 54 ft. (16 m)
Draught: 21 ft. (6.4 m)
Propulsion: COSAG on 2 shafts, 2 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers, geared steam turbines, 30,000 shp, 4 × Metrovick G6 gas turbines, 30,000 shp.
Speed: 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range: 3,500 nm
Complement: 471 (33 officers, 438 ratings)
Armament: originally 2 × Fore-mounted twin-gunned turret with 4.5-inch (114 mm) guns Mark N6, turret "B" was later replaced by 4 × MM38 Exocet missile launchers in 1975, 2 × mountings for Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, 1 × Aft-mounted Seaslug GWS.1 or GWS.2 SAM (24 missiles) later 4 W44 warheads were carried and could be fitted to the GWS.2, 2 × mountings (port & starboard) for Seacat GWS-22 SAM, 2 × triple-tube launchers for ship borne torpedoes
Aircraft carried: 1 × Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter
Aviation facilities: Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter
a minor offensive upgrade giving Exocet capability was carried out in 1975 the last of the counties left service in 1994, NCNS Bongo was expended as a target in 1988 during the Sea Arrow missile trials on the Type 42's. A single missile impacting amid ships broke the ships back and she sank in a few minutes. NCNS Addax was also expended as a target in 2012 testing an Anti Ship variant of EADS SCALP Naval which New Cromer one day intends to replace Harpoon, although by this time she was no more than a floating hulk. The missile missed and instead the hulk was sunk aircraft from NCNS Victoria using various munitions.
Frigates
back bone of the New Cromer navy from 1966-1989 were 14 vessels 11 Type 12 and 3 type 81 frigates. the type 12 would see modifications into 3 distict suface types and the type 81's were used as general surface combatants. the final type 12 were removed from service in 1990, the type 81's survived untill 1995. The vessels were involved in many operations around the region from ASW, to Enforcing embargoes to intercepting smugglers, people traffickers, illegal immigrants fisheries patrol and escorting New Cromer's and foreign ships during operations. The Type 81's were employed mainly in the Gulf area and saw very active careers in such a volatile area. it was a Type 81 that was attempting to board an Iraqi tanker in the 1980's that was accidentally destroyed by one on New Cromer's County class destroyers. NCNS Qallu picked up 22 survivors off of the Tanker before fire engulfed the entire tanker and the frigate had to pull back to a safe distance.
General Statistics
Class: Type 12 Frigate Whitby Class.
Type; Frigate.
No Built: 6RN, 2Indian and 11 for New Cromer.
Retired: 11 New Cromer.
Names: NCNS Nidar, NCNS Huur, NCNS Eebo, NCNS Ayaanle, NCNS Araweello, NCNS Wiilwaal, NCNS Bucur Bacayr, NCNS Habbad ina Kamas, NCNS Birir ina Barqo, NCNS Qori Ismaris and NCNS Dhegdheer.
Builder; Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, UK and Harland & Wolff, Belfast, UK.
Laid Down; From 1957.
Launched; From 1958.
Commissioned; 1959 to the last retired in 1991.
Home Port; New Oxley Naval Station, Victoria Naval Station, Cromer Naval Station.
Pennant Numbers; TBA
Displacement: 2,150 tons (2,185 tonnes), 2,560 tons full load (2,600 tonnes)
Length: 360 ft. (109.7 m) w/l, 370 ft. (112.8 m) o/a
Beam: 41 ft. (12.5 m)
Draught: 17 ft. (5.2 m)
Propulsion: Y-100 plant; 2 Babcock and Wilcox boilers, 2 English Electric steam turbines, 2 shafts, 30,000 shp (22 MW)
Speed: 30 kn (56 km/h)
Range: 370 tons oil fuel, 4,200 nmi (7,780 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement: 152, later 225
Sensors and processing systems: Radar Type 293Q target indication, later; Radar Type 993, Radar Type 277Q height finding (later removed), Radar Type 275 fire control on director Mark 6M, Radar Type 262 fire control on STAAG, Radar Type 974 navigation, Type 1010 Cossor Mark 10 IFF, Sonar Type 174 search, Sonar Type 162 target classification, Sonar Type 170 attack
Armament: 1 x twin 4.5 in (114 mm) gun Mark 6, 1 x twin 40 mm Bofors gun Mark 2 STAAG, later;, 1 x single 40 mm Bofors gun Mark 7, 2 x Limbo anti-submarine mortar Mark 10, 12 x 21 in anti-submarine torpedo tubes (removed late 1980’s)
General Statistics
Class: Type 81 TRIBAL
Type; Frigate
No Built: 10 (7 for the RN of the UK and 3 for New Cromer)
Retired: 7 (All New Cromer’s are Decommissioned and all but 3 RN ship scrapped 3 sold to Indonesia)
Names: NCNS Yibris, NCNS Qaliu and Waaq
Builder; Yarrow & Co Ltd, Glasgow, UK.
Laid Down; From 1960
Launched; From 1962.
Commissioned; From 1963. All decommissioned in 1995.
Home Port; New Oxley Naval Station but were out stationed to Kuwait for most of their lives.
Pennant Numbers; TBA
Displacement: 2,300 long tons (2,300 t) standard, 2,700 long tons (2,700 t) full load
Length: 360 ft. 0 in (109.73 m) Oa, 350 ft. 0 in (106.68 m) pp
Beam: 42 ft. 3 in (12.88 m)
Draught: 13 ft. 3 in (4.04 m), 17 ft. 6 in (5.33 m) (propellers)
Propulsion: Single-shaft COSAG, 1 Steam turbine 12,500 shp (9,300 kW), 1 Metrovick G-6 gas turbine 7,500 shp (5,600 kW)
Speed: 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) (COSAG)
Range: 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 253
Sensors and processing systems: Radar type 965 air-search, Radar type 993 low-angle search, Radar type 978 navigation, Radar type 903 gunnery fire-control, Radar type 262 GWS-21 fire-control, Sonar type 177 search, Sonar type 170 attack, Sonar type 162 bottom profiling
Waaq: Sonar type 199 variable-depth
Armament: 2 × single 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mark 5* Mod 1 guns, 2 × single 40 mm Mark 7 Bofors guns, later;, 2 × four-rail GWS-20 Sea Cat missile systems, 2 × single 20 mm Oerlikon guns, 1 × Mark 10 Limbo ASW mortar
Aircraft carried: 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter
Submarines
6 Oberon Class submarrines served the navy from 1959 to 1993 when they were replaced by ex RN Churchil class boats. One vessel NCNS Ala was lost with all hands in 1978 after a collision with a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean it is still debated wether this was an accident or an intentional ramming....... The Oberon Class were replaced by the Churchill class in 1992-93 after cracks were discovered in a number of bulkheads following very active careers. They spent there careers keeping tabs on foreign submarine and surface shipping in the indian and southern oceans as well as intelligence gathering missions in the Middle East. NCNS Agwu was the last to be decommissioned in 1994. 3 of the 5 survivors were scrapped between 1995 and 1997 with NCNS Agwu preserved as a museum piece and NCNS Chukwu expended as a remote target in 1996 using an Ikara missile.
General Statistics
Class: Oberon class SSK
Type; Attack/Patrol submarine
No Built: 33 (6 for New Cromer and 27 for various navy’s Inc the RN)
Retired: New Cromer 6 (1 sunk in accident 1978), All of the rest.
Names: NCNS Chukwu, NCNS Aha Njoku, NCNS Ala, NCNS Amadioha, NCNS Ikenga and NCNS Agwu.
Builder; Vickers Armstrong Shipbuilding Ltd, Barrow, UK
Laid Down; From 1959
Launched; From 1961.
Commissioned; From 1962
Home Port; Victoria Naval Station
Pennant Numbers; TBA
Displacement: Surfaced: 2,030 t (2,000 long tons), Submerged: 2,410 t (2,370 long tons)
Length: 295.2 ft. (90.0 m)
Beam: 26.5 ft. (8.1 m)
Draught: 18 ft. (5.5 m)
Propulsion: 2 × 3,680 hp Admiralty Standard Range V16 diesels, 2 × 1280 kW generators, 2 × 3,000 hp electric motors, diesel-electric 2 shafts
Speed: Surfaced: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), Submerged: 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Range: 10,350 nautical miles (19,170 km; 11,910 mi) at surface cruising speed
Test depth: 650 ft. (200 m)
Complement: 7 officers, 62 sailors
Sensors and processing systems: Type 1002 surface search and navigation radar, Type 187 Active-Passive attack sonar, Type 2007 long range passive sonar
Electronic warfare & decoys: MEL Manta UAL or UA4 radar warning.
Armament: 6 × 21 in (533.4 mm) bow tubes, 20 torpedoes, 2 × 21 in (533.4 mm) short stern tubes, 2 torpedoes, Forward torpedo payload could be replaced with 50 × mines