The Royal Navy’s mysterious experimental vessel XV Patrick Blackett made her debut on the Thames in mid May 2023, as she has been visiting London.
The vessel, which is a Damen-built and -adapted Fast Crew Supplier 4008 (FCS 4008), was designed and built by Damen Group and is an experimental ship used by the Royal Navy as a testing platform for new military technologies.
Ownership of the vessel was transferred to the Royal Navy in March 2021, and the work to adapt the vessel at Damen’s shipyard facility in the Netherlands involved the conversion of passenger and cargo space into a briefing room, office and workshop.
She is capable of speeds in excess of 20 knots, with a range in excess of 3,000 nautical miles, and is named after the Royal Navy veteran and Nobel Prize winning British physicist Patrick Blackett.
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