Frigates sail from city for 'message'

HMS RICHMOND JOINS CARRIER STRIKE GROUP

- By BEN MITCHELL

FRIGATES leaving Plymouth are expected to join up with The Royal Navy's flagship HMS Prince of Wales which yesterday left for the Indo-Pacific as head of an international Carrier Strike Group with the aim of sending a “powerful message that we mean business”.

UK and Canadian frigates HMS Richmond and HMCS Ville de Quebec - both sailing from Plymouth - are among the ships joining the £3billion aircraft carrier, which will lead UK, Norwegian and Canadian warships for the eight-month deployment to join exercises, operations and visits with 40 countries across the Mediterranean, Middle East, south-east Asia, Japan and Australia.

Thousands of families and well-wishers were expected to line the harbour walls at Portsmouth yesterday to wave off the HMS Prince of Wales and Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless.

They will then be joined by two Norwegian vessels - tanker HNoMS Maud and frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen - as well as HMS Richmond and HMCS Ville de Quebec.