Navy, Leave.

[rich49]

Hiya,
The way I Understand things a Naval Officer in the surface fleet can expect deployments for up to six months, occasionaly up to nine months. How much leave time do they get to compensate for this? What is the normal time spent away from home?

I know that in the Merchant Navy the officers work on a 3 months on, 2 months off ratio, what is it like in the Royal Navy? How much time do you actually get to spend with your family?

Cheers!
Rich

[Navaleye]

It used to be 6 months / 1 month. Not sure about now though. But it hardly ever worked out that way. Now with fewer ships and just as many committments, leave is under pressure. That's why so many familymen (people?) are leaving.

[Bigtop]

Rich,

As a surface fleet officer expect to spend the lion share of your first 10 years at sea if you have any aspiration of moving up the ladder.
Following BRNC you will go to sea for 4-6 months to complete CFT (Common Fleet Time) after which you sit the Fleet Board. Then its back to sea to consolidate with your SFT(Specialist Fleet Time). On completion of this you will do the JWO (Jnr Warfare Offficers Cse) and then back to sea - hopefully as a Navs if you did well. You maybe lucky after this and get a shore tour for a couple of years followed by Pre-PWO time (again at sea) and the PWO cse (approx 12 mths shore side) then followed by 2 or 3 back to back appts (18mths- 2yrs at a time as a Jnr PWO/Snr PWO and then Ops. Maybe a short break back to sea as an XO (2 i/c) and then promted to Cdr and a drive or 2 of yr own war canoe. If your doing okay this should all happen by age 34-36. Now you can draw breath, enjoy a job in 'town' and hang on for further promotion and maybe a drive as a Capt before retiring having given yr pound of flesh.

Alteratively you can become a WAFU and enjoy life in the FAA.

Rich,

Forhot this one. Normally 6 wks per year and frontline is predicated around school keave periods where possible. There are a few bolt ons for extra time away ect. Normally a few weeks extra after a 6 mth plus deployment - aka sea leave.

Any other queries - just ask happy to help.

[Navaleye]

Bigtop,

Not sure if the WAFU move is good career planning anymore. No more FJs (that belong to the RN at least) and its probable that the Lynx replacement may be a UAV so there may be little to fly anymore. Does a UAV need an FDO?

[airborne_artist]

Naval eye

you forgot that FAA still has ASW Merlins and the Junglie role - still hope....

Rich 49

As for leave with family, which family? Girl in every port.....

[rich49]

Hmmm. When Bigtop says that you will do 2 to 3 back to back apointments at a time, each 18 months to 2 yrs, you can expect 1 month leave for every 6 months at sea?

So you would sail for 6 months, then spend a month at home before going off to do another 6 months??? So your only at home for 1 month a year? That can't be right. Am I missing something?
Thanks for all your help!
Rich

[Oggin Aviator]

A year at sea with only a month's leave is quite feasible. You only get 6 weeks a year anyway and you can carry some over to the next year. I doubt you would do 2 6 month trips in one year but it is possible - more likely is a 4 month trip - 2 weeks leave - 4 weeks alongside - another 4 month trip - 2 weeks leave 4 weeks alongside etc etc

It just depends on what the ship is doing at the time.

you forgot that FAA still has ASW Merlins and the Junglie role - still hope....
Dont forget the mighty Mark 7 ASaC which has a bright future.

Oggin

[Vapour]

If you're really unlucky (or lucky, depending on your viewpoint) you can end up doing back-to-back deployments, but the ships do not spend all their time away from the UK. Maintenance, trials, workups and other training will keep them in home waters for significant periods, but even then you are likely to be away from base port for a lot of the time.

My first ship after training was a brand-new minehunter. During the 20 months I was there as Navigator we spent 4 days in Amsterdam and 2 days in Cherbourg. The rest of the time we were in British waters doing trials (mostly) followed by Operational Sea Training and a JMC. Despite not deploying while I was onboard we still spent loads of time out of base port. Based in Portsmouth, we got to know Faslane very well.

Personnel Functional Standards states that each individual musn't spend more than 660 days out of a rolling three-year period away from base port (these figures are approximate due to memory failure). It requires 2-star approval to break these limits for any member of the Royal Navy ... except junior Warfare Officers! Nobody has managed to explain, convincingly, why we are exempt, something about 'journeyman time'. It seems to be part of a plot to ensure that 90% of all Warfare Officers leave as soon as possible, but I'm not sure why the powers that be would want that. Any ideas?

Anyway, I can't complain. My next job saw me onboard a destroyer that spent 6 months alongside because of the fire-fighters strike, before going into dry dock for maintenance (we did get to sea eventually, but I only got a foreign run ashore after being loaned to another ship for OP TELIC). Now the Navy has sent me shore-side to work with the RAF for a couple of years. Going back to sea for a deployment is going to be a real shock!

[VP959]

Navaleye wrote: ".......its probable that the Lynx replacement may be a UAV......"

Not as far as current thinking goes it isn't. UAVs have been looked at closely and it's been determined that it's unlikely that the technology would be available to do the maritime attack/ISTAR role with one until around 2020.

Currrently the Westland Future Lynx is in the Assessment Phase of the procurement cycle as the RN Lynx replacement, with a planned ISD of 2011.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Would you want to rapid rope from a UAV?

The USN are busy replacing their shipborne helicopters with.......new shipborne helicopters.

Back to the issue of leave, deployments etc. We have fewer assets (all the Services). But the same number of deployments, if not more. Consequently.....

1. Units (ships,battalions,squadrons) are likely to get deployed more often.
2. They get deployed for loonger.
3. People get pi$$ed off, and rentention and recruitment suffer.

[Navaleye]

Speculation (from a well informed source, not I) suggests that Workstrand 13 is proposing "radical" solutions to the RN's helicopter needs. Just a rumour but...

See the RN board for more on this.

rich49 - we seem to have taken your thread horribly off-topic. Apologies for that.

[VP959]

Navaleye,

Trust me, I know an even more well informed source. Notwithstanding the WS13 speculation, FLynx remains a good solution for SCMR. The alternative being proposed is an all-Merlin fleet, fitted with FASGW and ASuW enhancements, from what I hear..............

Remind me again, just how much does a Merlin cost? Isn't it quite a bit more than double the cost of an FLynx?

[Navaleye]

Good news, but unless we build more, which the government said it will not do, we do not have enough to go around.

The govt's attitude at present is to pursue the least cost option. £50m Merlin of £500k UAV? I just don't trust Blair and his slime balls.

[Bill Webb-Ellis]

Navaleye


In some of your posts you say that more details can be found on the Navy Board. Can you provide details on how I can access the said Board.

regards

[Navaleye]

Sure. Here (http://p216.ezboard.com/fwarships1discussionboardsfrm3)