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<p>HMS PROTECTOR, the Royal Navy's Ice Patrol Ship, provides a United Kingdom Sovereign
presence in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich
Islands and their surrounding maritime areas.</p><p>PROTECTOR is currently in the
South Atlantic and is focussed on the provision of support to the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, including Antarctic Treaty inspections and station visits in support of the
British Antarctic Survey, and survey activity, primarily to increase charting coverage
of Antarctic shipping routes and the United Kingdom Overseas Territories. She recently
successfully deployed unmanned aerial vehicles for the first time to assist with navigating
through the Antarctic.</p><p>Since entering service in 2011, PROTECTOR has been deployed
to the South Atlantic from December 2011 to May 2013; and from October 2013 to April
2015. In October 2015, she again deployed from the United Kingdom, arriving in the
region this spring, having conducted a circumnavigation of the globe.</p>
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