London sees a fair number of military vessels visit each year from a variety of countries and quite often hosts vessels of NATO’s Standing Mine Counter-measures Group 1 but at the end of May 2024 it was nice to have the current flagship of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in the guise of Spanish Navy’s frigate Almirante Juan de Borbón.
Interestingly the last time SNMG1 visited London the flotilla included another of the Spanish Navy’s F100-class vesssels but for this visit the planned replenishment ship that was due to accompany the Frigate unfortunately cancelled.
The Warship was assisted in to the KGV Lock by a pair of harbour tugs and then later in the evening, after London City Airport had closed, one of these tugs and locally based THAMES VIXEN turned the Frigate around so that it was facing bows out towards the river ready for it’s departure.
As with all such warship visits a number of formal engagements take place and various logistics activities take place – sadly no public access to the vessel was permitted.
Hopefully it won’t be another 8 years until SNMG1 visit London again!!
The following video clip shows the arrival of the vessel, a ‘sun-set’ ceremony and the departure of the vessel.
Dock, Lock and River Blog (#dlr_blog) 