Royal Navy’s HMS Stirling Castle formally affiliated with Gibraltar in ‘lasting bond of friendship’ 

The Royal Navy’s cutting-edge minehunter HMS Stirling Castle has been formally affiliated with Gibraltar, in the first such agreement between a navy vessel and the Rock. 

All Royal Navy warships are normally affiliated with at least one city, combining tradition, public diplomacy, morale support, civic honour and local identity. 

The affiliation of HMS Stirling Castle with the Rock aims to raise awareness of the ship’s roles and activities within Gibraltar and establish cooperative relations to mutual benefit. 

It centres on sharing expertise to “teach and learn from the other”, publicising the relationship and extending hospitality to each other to inspire and support, according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the ship’s Commanding Officer, Commander Phil Harper, and Nicky Guerrero, the Mayor, at a reception on the vessel’s bridge earlier this week. 

“The expertise and strengths of the members of each organisation should be recognised and promoted to each other,” the MoU reads, including by sharing information and assistance, or making helpful introductions or recommendations. 

Gibraltar will invite members of HMS Stirling Castle to participate in social events where appropriate and support the vessel through an annual prize, providing a permanent reminder of the affiliation to be displayed on the ship. 

Likewise, HMS Stirling Castle shall, where possible within the ship’s programme, invite the Governor and Mayor to formal functions, organise visits to the vessel and invite officials and citizens, and open it to the public when possible. 

Commander Harper told GBC the affiliation represented “a long-lasting formal bond of friendship between the city and the ship”, while Chief Minister Fabian Picardo described it as “a great source of pride”. 

HMS Stirling Castle, which is also affiliated with the Scottish city of Stirling, was purchased by the Ministry of Defence in 2023 after it had operated for a decade as a commercial vessel, MV Island Crown, in the offshore wind, oil and gas sector.  

She was renamed in July 2025 and, following a period of refurbishment, is at the forefront of the Royal Navy’s mine hunting capabilities, extending the reach and scope of operations to locate and destroy mines.  

The ship is home to high-tech equipment, including autonomous surface vessels and uncrewed underwater vehicles, and the Royal Navy teams who operate them.  

 HMS Stirling Castle can be used to store, prepare, deploy and recover autonomous boats and underwater systems for mine warfare. 

The vessel delivered equipment to RFA Lyme Bay, which was recently converted in Gibraltar into a mothership for underwater mine-hunting drones and sailed from the Rock this week, potentially bound for the Middle East as part of a multi-national operation to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping once hostilities cease. 

A ship carrying the same name, the troopship HMT Stirling Castle, brought Gibraltarian evacuees back to the Rock during World War II.