The third Panther class destroyer D103 Puma has passed it's acceptance trials and entered into service. It has a number of detail changes from the first 2 ships though nothing major. From D105 onwards Panther will move to Panther Block 2 standard with a number of improvements to systems and some internal changes. The previous 4 ships will be bought up to Block 2 when they have their first intermediate refits.
After a lengthy delay the third Missileer carrier R103 Pikeman has entered service. There has been a noticable gap between ship 2 and 3 this was due to an accident on the Missileer production jig that delayed production for a number of weeks. R103 also has been modified with the changes already added to the first 2 ships.
F131 Caspian Sea has left service for modification to Terran Sea B standard and it will be re-classified a Barents Sea class frigate. F132 Black Sea has already undertaken this conversion and is now on test before returning to service. The remaining 2 Caspian Sea frigates will be converted in the next couple of months after they return from their current patrols.
Rome class corvette K101 Cicero has been forced to leave the Operation Crayfish deployment early (though the deployment is nearly complete) because of an accident on board. A plasma conduit ruptured killing 2 crewmen and injuring 6, it is thought the conduit ruptured because of operator error and the failure of safety procedures. The ship was forced to make for New Arit where it will offload the injured crew and effect repair. Extender class oiler A149 Octane accompanied Cicero and will help carry out the repairs. The rest of the Rome fleet will receive inspection of their safety equipment as soon as possible though a software update to the system that failed has already been rolled out.
Finally the tactical reconnaissance module for the Panther has been accepted into service following trials on D102 Jaguar. The Panther Tactical Reconnaissance Module (PTRM) includes SAR, laser radar and passive modes. The module is belly mounted replacing the Z5 cannon on recce missions. The DDS have ordered 4 PTRMs for their Panther fleet. The module can be fitted to a ship in just 17 hours.
