UK — Royal Navy’s most advanced destroyer sets course into service

While appear­ing at Portsmouth Navy Days the first of the Roy­al Navy’s new Type 45 Class destroy­ers, HMS Dar­ing, was declared for­mal­ly avail­able for task­ing on Sat­ur­day 31 July 2010.

Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring at HM Naval Base Portmouth during the Senior Service's Navy Days annual open event
Roy­al Navy Type 45 destroy­er HMS Dar­ing at HM Naval Base Port­mouth dur­ing the Senior Service’s Navy Days annu­al open event
Source: Lead­ing Air­man (Pho­tog­ra­ph­er) Dean Nixon, Min­istry of Defence, UK
Click to enlarge

HMS Dar­ing was com­mis­sioned into the Roy­al Navy fleet in July 2009. Since then the ship has been under­tak­ing a series of MOD-man­aged tri­als and accep­tance activ­i­ties to test and con­firm the ship’s tech­ni­cal capa­bil­i­ty and ensure that it is ready to join the Roy­al Navy as a front line warship. 

This peri­od has includ­ed Daring’s crew under­tak­ing rig­or­ous basic oper­a­tional sea train­ing and the Type 45 mak­ing its first over­seas vis­it, to Ireland. 

Now, the 7,500-tonne ship can offi­cial­ly begin to play a key role in var­i­ous oper­a­tions around the world. 

HMS Daring’s abil­i­ty to oper­ate a range of heli­copters from its flight deck and embark up to 60 troops, in addi­tion to the ship’s own com­pa­ny, make the war­ship a ver­sa­tile Roy­al Naval asset, able to sup­port land forces and car­ry out human­i­tar­i­an missions. 

Min­is­ter for Defence Equip­ment, Sup­port and Tech­nol­o­gy, Peter Luff, said: 

Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth opens its doors to the public for Navy Days 2010
Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth opens its doors to the pub­lic for Navy Days 2010
Source: Lead­ing Air­man (Pho­tog­ra­ph­er) Dean Nixon, Min­istry of Defence, UK
Click to enlarge

“The first in-ser­vice date for the Type 45 Class is a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment for both the pro­gramme and the Roy­al Navy. It rep­re­sents the first step towards deliv­er­ing the fleet of the future. 

“Along with her five sis­ter ships, Dar­ing will set new stan­dards in air defence and will demon­strate her wider abil­i­ty across the future chal­lenges faced by the Armed Forces. I have no doubt that Dar­ing will pro­vide ster­ling ser­vice through­out its life.” 

Cap­tain Pad­dy McAlpine, Daring’s Com­mand­ing Offi­cer, said: 

“Dar­ing rep­re­sents a step change for the Roy­al Navy. Her tech­nol­o­gy and design make her an easy ship to fight with and my abil­i­ty to con­trol the air­space around the task force is unsurpassed. 

“My ship’s com­pa­ny and I are proud and priv­i­leged to serve in this tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent ship, forg­ing the way for the class. The poten­tial that I have wit­nessed to date promis­es that this capa­bil­i­ty is set to become the cor­ner­stone of the future Roy­al Navy.” 

HMS Daring (left) and Royal Navy Type 22 frigate HMS Cumberland (right) at HM Naval Base Portsmouth during Navy Days 2010
HMS Dar­ing (left) and Roy­al Navy Type 22 frigate HMS Cum­ber­land (right) at HM Naval Base Portsmouth dur­ing Navy Days 2010
Source: Lead­ing Air­man (Pho­tog­ra­ph­er) Dean Nixon, Min­istry of Defence, UK
Click to enlarge

Head of the Type 45 pro­gramme, Com­modore Steve Brun­ton, said: 

“This mile­stone is the cul­mi­na­tion of a huge amount of hard work over five years of con­struc­tion, and anoth­er two years of tri­als and devel­op­ment, by 4,000 work­ers at the Clyde and Portsmouth ship­yards, many more at sup­pli­ers across the UK, and staff at MOD and in the Roy­al Navy. 

“The strong rela­tion­ship between MOD, indus­try and the Roy­al Navy has been crit­i­cal to achiev­ing today’s success.” 

HMS Dar­ing was in Portsmouth at the week­end as part of Navy Days, the Roy­al Navy’s annu­al event that gives the pub­lic the chance to meet the peo­ple and the ships of the mod­ern Navy. 

More than 25,000 vis­i­tors flocked to Portsmouth Naval Base for the three-day event which end­ed on Sun­day 1 August. 

HMS Dar­ing and sis­ter ves­sel Daunt­less opened their doors to the pub­lic along with six oth­er ships, includ­ing ‘float­ing hos­pi­tal’ Roy­al Fleet Aux­il­iary ves­sel Argus, fresh from a recent refit. 

 Crowds get a glimpse into the Royal Navy's past as historical re-enactors fire volleys from long-barrelled muskets at Portsmouth dockyard
Crowds get a glimpse into the Roy­al Navy’s past as his­tor­i­cal re-enac­tors fire vol­leys from long-bar­relled mus­kets at Portsmouth dock­yard
Source: Lead­ing Air­man (Pho­tog­ra­ph­er) Dean Nixon, Min­istry of Defence, UK
Click to enlarge

His­toric ships HMS Vic­to­ry and HMS War­rior also proved a big draw, as did a BAE Sys­tems exhi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing the company’s cur­rent ship­build­ing projects, includ­ing the two Queen Eliz­a­beth Class air­craft car­ri­ers, and a glimpse of the future, the Type 26 com­bat ship, which is expect­ed to enter ser­vice in the ear­ly 2020s and will replace the Navy’s cur­rent fleet of Type 22 and 23 frigates. 

Com­modore Rob Thomp­son, Naval Base Com­man­der, said: 

“Navy Days was a huge suc­cess. The main­ly dry and warm weath­er played a part but a big draw was see­ing the Roy­al Navy’s ships and per­son­nel at close hand. 

“The event proved an excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to show the gen­er­al pub­lic the wide role of the Roy­al Navy and what its men and women are up to across the globe — from tak­ing the fight to the Tal­iban in Afghanistan to coun­ter­ing pirates in the Gulf of Aden.” 

HMS Dar­ing is due to under­go fur­ther oper­a­tional train­ing and capa­bil­i­ty devel­op­ment in prepa­ra­tion for her first oper­a­tional deploy­ment, planned for 2011. 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →