HMS Echo (H87)

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Career (United Kingdom)

Ordered:	19 June 2000
Builder:	Appledore Shipbuilders
Launched:	4 March 2002
Commissioned:	7 March 2003
Status:	Active in service as of 2008
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,470 tonnes
Length:	90.6 m
Beam:	16.8 m
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric, 3 x diesel generators (4.8 MW), 2 x 1.7 MW (2,279 hp) azimuth thrusters, 1 x 0.4 MW (536 hp) bow thruster
Speed:	15 kt
Range:	9300 nmi at 12 kt
Endurance:	35 days
Complement:	72
Sensors and processing systems:	Side-scan sonar Multi-beam echo sounder Single-beam echo sounder Undulating oceanographic profiler Doppler current log Sub-bottom profiler Bottom sampling equipment

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Echo.

HMS Echo (H87) is the first of two multi-role hydrographic survey ships commissioned by the Royal Navy. With her sister ship, HMS Enterprise (H88), they form the Echo class of survey vessels. She was built by Appledore Shipbuilders in Devon in 2002.[1]

Echo and Enterprise are the first Royal Navy ships to be fitted with azimuth thrusters. Both azimuth thrusters and the bow thruster can be controlled through the Integrated Navigation System by a joystick providing high manoeuvrability. Complete control and monitoring for power generation and propulsion, together with all auxiliary plant systems, tank gauging and damage control functions is provided through the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), accessible through workstations around the ship.