NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 1997 Options
No 504 Warships both large and small
—Facts and— figures Class: Type 23 frigate Pennant number: F239 Builder: Swan-Hunter Launched: April 6,1993 Commissioned: June 22,1995 Displacement: 3,500 tonnes Length: 133 metres Beam: 16.1 metres Draught: 7.3 metres Ship's company: 185 (17 officers) Machinery: CODLAG (Combined Diesel Electric and Gas Turbine): two Rolls-Royce Spey gas turbines; four Paxman Valenta diesels; two GEC motors Speed: 28 knots, 15kts on diesel-electric Range: 7,800 miles at 15kts Armaments: Vertical-launch Seawolf missiles, Harpoon missiles, 4.Sin Mk8 gun, two 30mm close-range guns, Stingray torpedoes and air-launched Sea Skua missiles Sensors: Type 996 surveillance radar, Type 1007 navigation radar, Type 911 trackers, Type 1010/1011 identification radar, Types 2031 and 2050 sonar Affiliations: Richmond, Yorkshire; The Green Howards Regiment; The Worshipful Company of Basket Makers; TS Kellington and TS Goodwin (SCCs) Sponsor: Lady Hill-Norton
T I tHE name Richmond has ; now adorned eight Royal -L. Navy ships, dating back as far as 1656.
• Long range frigate - HMS Richmond, the tenth of the Duke-class Type 23 anti-submarine warfare ships.
Richmond is a star attraction HMS Illustrious in Abu Dhabi, where ships from ten other navies also featured in the International Defence Exhibition. Richmond's Mk 8 Lynx helicopter, now named Griffin, took centre stage at the British marquee. The Type 23 frigate was a Another star in Dubai was boxer key element of the Ocean Chris Eubank, training for a fight. Wave 97 deployment, taking Chris took time out to attend a her to Australia and back in couple of ship's functions, and around eight months. hold a master class in the hangar for the ship's boxing team. LWEM Basic Operational Sea Training Shane Middleton had the dubious was completed out of Devonport honour of sparring two rounds last December, with a final assessment of Very Satisfactory. with the former world champion. On leaving the Gulf the ship It was then time for most of the headed east to Goa, where a threeship's company of 185 to get some day visit fortified them for exercisleave before knuckling down to es with the Indian Navy. preparations for the deployment. Next to see the frigate were the The engineers worked through. Malaysians, who joined the RN Richmond sailed from her home and ships and aircraft from New port of Portsmouth on January 14, Zealand, Australia and and was immediately Singapore in the twoflexing her muscles week Exercise Flying that afternoon saw a sucFish, the largest exercessful Seawolf missile cise of its kind in those launch. waters for years. The remains of A fortnight in January and the first half Singapore brought of February brought some family reunions, Mediterranean exercises and a number of the with UK, French, Italian ship's company left for and American naval future drafts. units, and visits to Vital maintenance Alicante, Livorno and was carried out, and the Cagliari. ship was again centre An anchorage within stage at an exhibition. sight of the Blue Mosque Further visits to in Istanbul saw Pusan in Korea and Richmond host the first Tokyo were followed by of several Defence a short stay in Industry Days, at which Vladivostock, home of around 70 Turkish naval the Russian Pacific officers were given Fleet and a port the demonstrations of the Royal Navy had not visequipment on board by ited in 111 years. British defence contracThe furthest point of tors. the deployment was Slightly larger than marked by the gatherthe Type 42 destroyer, ing at Fremantle in Richmond packs a hefty Australia, followed by punch with her weaponthe long journey home ry - 4.5in gun, Seawolf, - including 27 days at sea between Australia Harpoon and Sea Skua and Corfu, barring a missiles, and Stingray brief call at tiny Diego torpedoes - while her complement is signifi- • HMS boxer - Chris Eubank on HMS Richmond. Garcia in the Indian Ocean. cantly smaller than that Picture: Gllly Wheeler.
oin the Navy, see the world is a phrase which rang particularly true for the ship's company of HMS Richmond this year.
J
5
BATTLE HONOURS Quebec Havana
1759 Atlantic 1939-45 1762 Arctic 1941-45
The first, a 26-gun warship, was originally named the Wakefleld, becoming the Richmond in 1660. She saw action throughout the Dutch wars. She was swiftly followed by the second Richmond, an eight-gun yacht which served between 1672 and 1685. The third started as 20-gun French frigate Dauphin; she was captured by the RN in 1745 and renamed, serving with the Leeward Island Squadron until 1749. The fourth, another fifth rate ship, this time carrying 32 guns, saw plenty of action. Built in 1757, she was involved in the capture of Quebec two years later, the Channel blockade, the capture of Havana and the American War of Independence. She was captured by a French fleet in 1781. Down in size again, the fifth Richmond was a 14-gun brig, commissioned in 1806 and sold in 1814. A century passed until another Richmpnd appeared, this time a requisitioned trawler which operated during the First World War. The Second World War saw the seventh Richmond, former US destroyer Fairfax, transferred under lend-lease in 1940. She escorted Atlantic and Arctic convoys before transferring to the Soviet navy in 1943. She returned in 1949 and was scrapped the same year.
of a Type 42 destroyer or older Type 22 frigate. With her combination of quietrunning engines and low-profile radar signature, Richmond is one of the most advanced warships in service anywhere today - hence the interest shown in her during the deployment. At the end of February the ship left the Med and slipped into the Suez Canal, at which some of the ship's company visited Cairo and the Pyramids, while others were baffled by the trickery of the Gully Gully Man, an Egyptian magician. Now in tropical uniform, the ship's company enjoyed a low-key passage through the Red Sea and into the Gulf - Richmond's first truly operational area. After a short stay in Dubai the frigate joined Ocean Wave flagship
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