Speeding Greyhound
HMS Ardent, a Type 21-class frigate, at sea in the Gulf of Oman during the Royal Navy's first full Operation Armilla deployment in 1980-81. I took this from the ship's own Lynx helicopter as we returned after a sortie. A member of the ship's standing sea fire party (wearing his red surcoat) can be seen on the focsle and a member of the flight-deck team can be seen aft.
The Type 21 frigate or Amazon class frigate was a Royal Navy general-purpose escort designed by Yarrows in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and that served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s. The class was designed to fulfil a requirement for a relatively cheap yet modern general-purpose escort vessel to fill a projected gap in the number of escort hulls in the fleet. The unmistakably yacht-like and rakish lines were indicative of their commercial design. Their handsome looks combined with their impressive handling and acceleration lent itself to the class nickname of Porsches. The design was partially funded by the Royal Australian Navy who had originally intended to buy five vessels, but in the event did not purchase any.
The first of the eight built, HMS Amazon, entered service in May 1974. They were the first design to enter Royal Navy service which used solely gas-turbine propulsion, as opposed to the steam turbines or diesel engines of their predecessors. The design made use of large amounts of aluminium alloy in the superstructure to lower topweight but worries later surfaced about resilience to fire, particularly following a major fire aboard Amazon in 1977.
As originally built, the design made use of a lot of 'off the shelf' technology, such as the Sea Cat missile, the Wasp ASW helicopter and marinised Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. Yet it also featured modern electronics such as the CAAIS (Computer Assisted Action Information System) system to integrate the ship's weapons and sensor systems and provide the crew with all the relevant information they required to fight the ship, as and when they needed it. The Wasp was replaced by the vastly more capable multi-mission Westland Lynx. Ship-launched ASW torpedoes were also fitted.
All of the class except Amazon, took part in the Falklands War of 1982 and two were lost - Ardent and Antelope. They were heavily involved, performing extensive shore-bombardment missions and providing ASW and AAW duties for the task force. The remaining members of the class were sold to Pakistan in the early 1990s.
Scanned from a slide, this is an improved version of an earlier image in my stream.
Speeding Greyhound
HMS Ardent, a Type 21-class frigate, at sea in the Gulf of Oman during the Royal Navy's first full Operation Armilla deployment in 1980-81. I took this from the ship's own Lynx helicopter as we returned after a sortie. A member of the ship's standing sea fire party (wearing his red surcoat) can be seen on the focsle and a member of the flight-deck team can be seen aft.
The Type 21 frigate or Amazon class frigate was a Royal Navy general-purpose escort designed by Yarrows in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and that served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s. The class was designed to fulfil a requirement for a relatively cheap yet modern general-purpose escort vessel to fill a projected gap in the number of escort hulls in the fleet. The unmistakably yacht-like and rakish lines were indicative of their commercial design. Their handsome looks combined with their impressive handling and acceleration lent itself to the class nickname of Porsches. The design was partially funded by the Royal Australian Navy who had originally intended to buy five vessels, but in the event did not purchase any.
The first of the eight built, HMS Amazon, entered service in May 1974. They were the first design to enter Royal Navy service which used solely gas-turbine propulsion, as opposed to the steam turbines or diesel engines of their predecessors. The design made use of large amounts of aluminium alloy in the superstructure to lower topweight but worries later surfaced about resilience to fire, particularly following a major fire aboard Amazon in 1977.
As originally built, the design made use of a lot of 'off the shelf' technology, such as the Sea Cat missile, the Wasp ASW helicopter and marinised Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. Yet it also featured modern electronics such as the CAAIS (Computer Assisted Action Information System) system to integrate the ship's weapons and sensor systems and provide the crew with all the relevant information they required to fight the ship, as and when they needed it. The Wasp was replaced by the vastly more capable multi-mission Westland Lynx. Ship-launched ASW torpedoes were also fitted.
All of the class except Amazon, took part in the Falklands War of 1982 and two were lost - Ardent and Antelope. They were heavily involved, performing extensive shore-bombardment missions and providing ASW and AAW duties for the task force. The remaining members of the class were sold to Pakistan in the early 1990s.
Scanned from a slide, this is an improved version of an earlier image in my stream.