HMS Bulwark, the Fleet Flagship of the Royal Navy, returns to Plymouth on Monday (Dec 15) from a successful four-month amphibious deployment.

The amphibious assault ship left her base-port of HM Naval Base Devonport in as the lead ship of the Response Force Task Group, the UK’s high-readiness contingent maritime force of ships, submarines and aircraft.

HMS Bulwark’s commanding officer, Captain Dean Bassett said: “I am immensely proud of all HMS Bulwark has achieved and I wish to personally thank my ship’s company for their resilience, flexibility and the utmost professionalism that they have displayed throughout our deployment.

“The deployment statistics paint an impressive picture of the benefit the Royal Navy’s deployed presence brings to Defence but none of this capability is possible without the critically important support of our families and loved ones at home, for which we are extremely grateful.’’

The group of warships has been taking part in Exercise Cougar, demonstrating the ability to land troops in other countries and potentially operate independently anywhere in the world in response to a wide range of events, from humanitarian to warfare.

The command and control ship has travelled 17,000 nautical miles and conducted eight large exercises with the Gulf Co-operation Council and NATO countries.

From the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf, the task groups has worked with international partners and at the same time maintained the ship’s ability to react to any contingent tasking from the Government.

Operating with 15 countries, the task group has attracted five royal personnel, one president, a prime minister, eight foreign ambassadors, nine military chiefs and 44 senior military officers. She has hosted 900 invited guests and hosted 19 VIP events.

HMS Bulwark has trained and operated with forces from France, Germany, Albania, Greece, Turkey, USA, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and commanded a significant proportion of a 43-nation international maritime exercise in the Arabian Sea.

Her eight landing craft have delivered Taunton-based 40 Commando Royal Marines, (the lead commando group of the task group), on large-scale amphibious landings in Albania, Kuwait and Gibraltar.

For the third year in a row, the Royal Navy’s Flagship has remained at five-day notice for operations and spent 238 days away from her base-port, 148 of them being at sea.

The ship has a crew of 350, a quarter of whom are made up of Royal Marines.

The flight deck can operate two Chinook or two Merlin helicopters ands a large floodable dock holds four large landing craft with another four carried on davits on the ship’s side.