Brittany Ferries 'military exercise'

[bloomen]

I was coming back from Cherbourg last night on Brittany Ferries. The tannoy told us there would be a military exercise involving small boats.

As we approached Poole a series of numbered RIBs approached the ferry and practiced running alongside the boat. It was fantastic to watch, if a little fraught, a few of them nearly got swamped.

Anybody know which units would be out late at night chasing ferries and what would they be training for? I assume it's boarding uncooperative boats.

[chilistrucker]

Was chatting with a friend the other day, (we were both European lorry drivers) saying how we don't miss certain parts of the job these days with whole Calais scenario, people smuggling thing and all that. We both then started having a chat at how we wouldn't be surprised if a cross channel ferry could be a potential future target for terrorists.
If the terrorists could smuggle themselves, (not hard) and weapons, (harder) on board, they would only need to wait till the ferry was mid channel, and then go for it all guns blazing. Maximum impact, most amount of damage caused etc, before the 'right' sort of help could get to the ferry.
May sound a bit far fetched, but maybe not?
I wonder who were in those boats you saw

[ninja-lewis]

43 Commando at Faslane carry out regular exercises with CalMac ferries on the Clyde. Training the boat handlers and fleet protection marines to board large vessels - e.g. for anti-piracy tasks off the Horn of Africa. Quite probably their south coast colleagues doing the same here.

https://www.calmac.co.uk/blog/royal-marines-scale-...

[dirkgently]

chilistrucker said:

I wonder who were in those boats you saw

The RNLI are based in Poole, could be them.

[anonymous-user]

They look quite exposed in the RIB. If the OP was an armed jihadist/pirate the ferry looks fairly easy to defend. Perhaps there would also be helicopters and snipers on navy boats nearby.

[DJFish]

We often used to get SAR helicopters using us for winching practice when I were a lad.
Chap I once knew worked for PNTL, he'd tell apocryphal tales of chaps with big moustaches appearing on the bridge in the middle of the night, mid-channel asking for cups of tea.

[Simpo Two]

el stovey said:

They look quite exposed in the RIB. If the OP was an armed jihadist/pirate the ferry looks fairly easy to defend.

If the enemy was alert, maybe. It's hard to get round a big ship quickly. I'd guess this is more covert, to catch someone unaware, and at night you'd never know.

[Bill]

The SBS are based in Poole, aren't they?

[CaptainSlow]

Bill said:

The SBS are based in Poole, aren't they?

Yes, and they don't like being photographed.

[Bill]

I'm sure the OP will be OK so long as he doesn't post the photo on the internet.

[Feirny]

Bill said:

The SBS are based in Poole, aren't they?

What colour is the boat house?

[Stickyfinger]

WTF are you posting that image for idiot ?

[Doofus]

Stickyfinger said:

WTF are you posting that image for idiot ?

Either this guy needs a tin foil hat, or I need a parrot.

[TheInternet]

Stickyfinger said:

WTF are you posting that image for idiot ?

It's related to the text in the OP, so a bit like the newspapers do where they have some words and then an picture showing what they're writing about.

[whoami]

Stickyfinger said:

WTF are you posting that image for idiot ?

[J3JCV]

Tough job whoever it is, sea is about 7-10 degrees at the moment and its a bit fresh when getting covered in spray at 25kts.

[bloomen]

At no point were laser sights trained on my face.

Most of the folks in the boats didn't look massively happy to be there. There were five boats with about 4-6 people in each one. It was a pretty warm night considering the time of year.

[Tango13]

Doofus said:

Stickyfinger said:

WTF are you posting that image for idiot ?

Either this guy needs a tin foil hat, or I need a parrot.

Well the blokes in the boats are really in the ste, due to the amazing quality of the picture I have already identified them via farcebook and stolen all of their cyber ID's including bank details, NI numbers and a password to Sloth Molestors.com!!

I now also know the colour of the boathouse

[ApOrbital]

[Crush]

bloomen said:

Anybody know which units would be out late at night chasing ferries and what would they be training for? I assume it's boarding uncooperative boats.

HMRC F Squadron.

Training for when R' Shane and R' Brenda buy too many packs of fags in Europe.