RFA Mounts Bay captures amazing footage of vertical replenishment in the North Atlantic

RFA Mounts Bay has shown off more footage from her recent replenishment at sea (RAS) with the Royal Netherlands Navy's largest ship, HNLMS Karel Doorman.

In the footage captured by Lieutenant Commander Tracy Peyman, a VERTREP – vertical replenishment – is shown, in which a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter lifts an L118 light gun (105mm gun) battling the North Atlantic conditions.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ship said on Twitter: "FOD PLOD is to be conducted, is the pipe we make before commencement of flying to mitigate foreign object damage during flying ops."

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Before the VERTREP, part of the ship's crew would have conducted a FOD PLOD, a sweep of the deck looking for debris that might be blown around by the downwash from the helicopter rotors and could possibly enter the helo engines and cause Foreign Object Damage (FOD).

The gun is prepared by helicopter handlers who are trained in preparing different loads for lifting, a very precise process.

When the Merlin helicopter comes in, the cable hanging from it has to be touched against the deck or a helicopter handler needs to earth it with a long pole as the helicopter builds up a massive static electricity charge which could seriously harm the handlers on the deck.

Mounts Bay also took to Twitter to share images of the support ship as seen from the HNLMS Karel Doorman.

They asked in the tweet: "The harsh North Atlantic conditions taking its toll on our paintwork perhaps?".