River-class offshore patrol vessel
The River class is a class of offshore patrol vessels built primarily for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. A total of nine were built for the Royal Navy (RN), four Batch 1 and five Batch 2. One Batch 1 (HMS Clyde), which was the Falklands guard ship, was decommissioned and transferred at the end of its lease to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force.
Batch 1 River-class vessels HMS Severn, HMS Tyne and HMS Mersey exercising off the coast of Cornwall, 2012
Mersey visits Guyana during her Caribbean deployment in 2016
HMS Clyde exercising off the Falklands in 2014
Medway during sea trials in 2018
HMS Clyde was an offshore patrol vessel and was the tenth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name. She was launched on 14 June 2006 in Portsmouth Naval Base by VT Group shipbuilders in Portsmouth and is the fourth vessel of the River class, with a displacement of 2,000 tonnes and a 30 mm Oerlikon KCB gun in place of the 20 mm gun fitted to Tyne River-class ships. Clyde was decommissioned on the 20 December 2019 at HMNB Portsmouth and was returned to her owners at BAE Systems Maritime - Naval Ships,
although the ship remained under lease from BAE Systems to the Royal Navy until the end of March 2020. In August 2020 Clyde was transferred to the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Clyde exercising off the Falklands, 2014
Image: HMS Clyde Crest
HMS Clyde at anchor in Fox Bay, West Falkland, July 2011
RBNS Al-Zubara transits the Bab el-Mandeb strait, November 2020