b'Partner News Autumn 2022 9MODOperational engineeringWhilst operating in the High North, weapon engineering equipment began to display abnormal behaviours, requiring the team to in the High North have a solid understanding of engineering principles to diagnose and distinguish between real defects and anomalous propagation, and then advise command, which proved vital whilst potential threat aircraft and units were in proximity. By Lieutenant CommanderNavigation radars had to be kept rotating Marin-Ortega CEng MIET to prevent freezing, communication aerials and upper deck weapon systems had to be checked and cleared of ice and maintenance on the upper deck had to be limited due to the human factors of trying to conduct As a Weapon Engineer Officer in the Royaldextrous activities in sub-zero temperatures. Navy, I have been fortunate enough to work in a variety of roles, including ProjectThe engineering teams implemented Engineer in Defence Equipment & Supportnew routines to sustain equipment (DE&S), working on improving the Typefor longer periods, and strategically 45 Destroyers multifunctional radar andplanned rolling maintenance to ensure sea viper missile system to add a ballisticcommand was not without weapon missile defence capability; teaching missilesystem protection, scheduling deeper and advanced radar theory to principalmaintenance to coincide with periods of warfare officers and weapon engineers;reduced threat and warmer temperatures. and acted as a Flag Officer Sea Training Instructor, where I trained engineers forWhat next?action stations and how to fight the ship.Thinking beyond HMS Defender, the engineering and logistics teams then None of these were quite as challengingpublished a more classified engineering and interesting as being on the frontpost-operations paper, shared extensively line, ensuring the maximum availabilityLieutenant Commander Marin-Ortega CEng MIET. within the Royal Navy. The benefits of which of weapon, sensor and communicationare now already being utilised in Type 45 systems on the HMS Defender whilstwhat effects these temperatures wouldand other ship classes preparing for cold deployed on operations in the High North.have on our equipment and systems,climate operations.and how we would need to prepare. We In the previous 12 months, Defender hadstocked up on store items likely to be more operated in the Mediterranean, Red,perishable in those temperatures, prepared North and Baltic Seas, and the Indianlagging to prevent against condensation and North Pacific Oceans, experiencingand took on specialist cold weather extreme diversity in environment. Ofclothing designed for the environment. these 12 months, 32 weeks were at sea, highlighting how isolated the ship was to maintain, diagnose and repair systems and defects. Seven weeks were spent in the Arctic Circle during winter, which was a first for the BAE designed and built Type 45 class of ship and her crew.The weapon engineering department dealt with the challenges of operating equipment in diverse temperatures ranging from the high of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, the humid conditions of the Pacific Ocean, to the extreme cold of the Arctic, where it approached -20 F. Much before entering these areas, the engineering teams completed a Maritime Estimatea planning tool to considerHMS Defender in the Arctic.'