After training for nine months, the newly formed Iraqi Coast Defense Force (ICDF) began coastal patrol operations on 1 October 2004. This small Iraqi naval component, currently consisting of five 27-meter patrol boats, now is operating in and around Iraq’s coastal regions of Al Basrah and Khawr Al Amaya. The P103 is seen sailing in the waters off Iraq on her first official day of service.
Training of the ICDF, which included instruction in seamanship and navigation, damage control, maintenance, search and rescue, gunnery and boarding operations, was provided by the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team–Maritime and has been a truly international affair. All Iraqi sailors underwent basic training in either Iraq or Jordan. A team of Australian, British, Dutch, and U.S. naval personnel performed follow-on training, and a select group of ICDF officers has been permitted to attend portions of the United Kingdom’s Britannia Royal Naval College.
The ICDF currently is under the command of U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Joseph Medina, Commander, Task Force 58, and Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Three.
On 5 October, the Canadian submarine program suffered a setback when a major fire broke out in an electrical panel aboard HMCS Chicoutimi, resulting in several serious injuries and one fatality. The fire left the submarine without power off the coast of Scotland, two days after her acceptance by the Canadian Navy. She had been sailing to Canada on her maiden voyage following refurbishment in the United Kingdom.
Once the fire was extinguished and her casualties evacuated, the Chicoutimi was rigged for towing. With the help of the tug Anglican Prince and frigates HMS Montrose and HMS Marborough, she was brought back to Faslane, Scotland, for extensive repairs.
The Chicoutimi, known as HMS Upholder while in Royal Navy service, was the first of the class to be built, but was the fourth and final submarine of the class to be transferred to Canada. The quartet, renamed the Victoria class by Canada, were completed in the early 1990s but quickly were mothballed by the British Navy in favor of an all-nuclear-powered submarine force.
Delays and construction and refurbishment problems have plagued the program since its inception. It is expected, however, that once the problems are sorted out, these advanced submarines will provide a unique and powerful addition to the Canadian Navy.
On 9 September, Romania commissioned the newly refurbished frigate Regele Ferdinand into service. A U.K. Boxer (Type 22 Batch 2)-class warship, the frigate was known as HMS Coventry while in British service. She was retired from the Royal Navy in February 2002 and refitted for transfer beginning in August 2003. Plans call for her sister ship, ex-HMS London, decommissioned in 1999, to join the Romanian Navy in 2005 as the Regina Maria.
Funding permitting, a further refit of the two warships is planned for the future. This refurbishment would take place in Romania and is expected to add enhanced command-and-control systems and possibly a new surface-to-air missile system, permitting their use as flagships. Both frigates were constructed in the United Kingdom by Swan Hunter (Shipbuilders) Ltd. and entered British service in the late 1980s.