THE fourth and final new landing support ship has received a glowing bill of health from Whitehall.

RFA Lyme Bay will be handed over to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary on August 2 at the end of sea trials.

Before leaving BAE Systems’ Govan yard, inspectors from the MOD and the Defence Equipment & Support organisation pored over Lyme Bay. At the end of his team’s inspection, assessor Andy Britton proclaimed the ship “presented to the best standard we have seen for a long time”.

That resounding judgment was the final tick in the box needed for the ship to leave the Clyde for Falmouth to begin trials, ahead of being formally handed over to the RFA in Portland.

“Lyme Bay has been a real labour of love for the people involved,” said Allan Smith, ship manager for BAE.

“To receive this level of praise definitely makes it all worthwhile. Taking her down the Clyde under her own steam for the first time is a great day for the shipbuilding legacy of Glasgow.”

Lyme Bay was the second of two Bay-class ships ordered from Swan Hunter on Tyneside; a further two vessels, Mounts and Cardigan Bays, were ordered from BAE at Govan.

Swan completed Largs Bay, but delays with Lyme forced Whitehall to pull the plug on the Tyne shipyard and send the semi-complete ship up the Clyde for BAE to finish off.

The quartet replace the aged Knights of the Round Table; all the Sirs, except Sir Bedivere, have left RFA service. Their successors are considerably larger and more capable of supporting troops ashore, thanks not least to their huge loading dock and landing craft.