An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 17 His own career has one foot firmly at sea, with years of service on many ships, and the other firmly in the dock- yard, as a ship builder. He joined the Naval Service as a cadet in November 1981, training in the Cork Regional Technical College, followed by the Royal Naval Marine En- gineering Officers (MEO) application course in Plymouth. He achieved his naval engineering watchkeeping certificate in 1987, which is the professional qualification required to take a naval vessel to sea as the engineer in charge, and he served for two years as the assistant MEO on LÉ Emer, followed by another two years posting on the same vessel as MEO. Having completed almost four years at sea, Comdre Malone rotated ashore to an appointment in the Naval Planning office in the Shore Support Group, which has grown and transformed over the decades into Naval Support Command (which Comdre Malone would later command.) However, shore time passes quickly and before long LÉ Deirdre was to be his home for two years. This was followed by another appointment in the Naval Dockyard and Shore Support Group, and then with the Planning and Inspectorate unit, where he worked on the planning and specification for the LÉ Roisín and LÉ Niamh. He was the resident engineer for LÉ Niamh in Appledore shipbuilders in 2000 and 2001, when LÉ Niamh was deliv- ered to Ireland. The then Lt Cdr Malone sailed on the new vessel as MEO for nearly two-and-a-half years, during which he took part in "the longest overseas trip the Navy had undertaken up to that time, with a visit to Japan and the Far East". When next ashore, he became part of the team that began to develop the specifications for the P60-class patrol vessels. He also undertook the Command and Staff course in 2006. In 2008 then Commander Malone began to carry out the detailed specification work for the next generation of NS vessels and he says it was a proud day, at the end of a very long journey, when contracts for those vessels were signed that year. He remained deeply involved in that programme, which subsequently saw the proposed three vessels become four: LÉ Samuel Beckett, LÉ James Joyce and LÉ William Butler Yeats are now in service and LÉ George Bernard Shaw will arrive in July of 2018. Of this busy period of renewal for the fleet, he says, "As the resident engineer in Appledore, I had a very good in- sight into the requirements to ensure that we delivered the vessels on time, on specification and on cost. Vessels would regularly have cost overruns, but this has not been the case with the vessels we have built to date." Asked if he thinks the relationship built up with Ap- pledore will change post-Brexit, Comdre Malone said: "When we go for the next generation of vessels, it will be the same as heretofore, an open EU competition. I don't necessarily see any major issue with that; in the last competition we had significant interest from a number of countries worldwide, applying to be include in the requests for tenders." On a recent visit to New Zealand by two NS command- ers, Commodore Malone said: "We received an invita- tion to look at the HMNZS Canterbury while on exercise… it was a great opportunity to view the many roles which have been given to this roll-on/roll-off variant vessel, such as its recent involvement in humanitarian relief after an earthquake. However, her design would not be particularly suited to the type of conditions off the west coast of Ire- land, and also she is significantly bigger than our concept at present." Acquiring new vessels and new equipment for our sailors to ply their trade with is very important, and the NS must constantly renew itself to face the challenges of the future. To this end I asked Comdre Malone if he sees a possible move to a nine-ship fleet when LÉ George Ber- nard Shaw shoves into view in the lower harbour. "We will have to wait to move to the ninth ship," he answered. "The reality is, the number of ships that we can operate is a function of the number of trained, competent personnel that we have in the organisation. At the mo- ment, we don't have sufficient numbers of critical person- nel with the skills necessary to operate nine vessels." Comdre Malone assumes command of a service that is operating at the highest levels, domestically and interna- tionally; that has a fleet of ships that for the first time in many years has 50% less than four years old; that faces huge challenges to secure Ireland's maritime border with the looming uncertainty of Brexit; that must continue to find a way to update its fleet; and that must find a solu- tion to the ever-present problem of the retention of its highly trained personnel. We thank Comdre Tully for the work he has done in modernising and equipping the Naval Service to under- take its many important roles and we wish Comdre Malo- ne the best as he navigates the Service into the future. LÉ Niamh arrives in Augusta and joins Operation SOPHIA in October 2016. The Bar of Ireland presented its inaugural Human Rights Award to the Irish Naval Service on 13th October 2016 in appreciation of its exceptional contribution to human rights in saving thousands of lives in the Mediterranean Sea during the current migration crisis.

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