HMS Northumberland (F238)
 HMS Northumberland coming alongside HMS Belfast as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire, April 2007 |
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| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Northumberland (F238) |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Ordered: | December 1989 |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Laid down: | 4 April 1991 |
| Launched: | 4 April 1992 |
| Commissioned: | 29 September 1994 |
| Homeport: | HMNB Devonport, Plymouth |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type 23 Frigate |
| Displacement: | 4,900 tonnes, standard[1] |
| Length: | 133 m (436 ft 4 in) |
| Beam: | 16.1 m (52 ft 10 in) |
| Draught: | 7.3 m (23 ft 9 in) |
| Propulsion: | CODLAG with four 1510 kW (2,025 shp) Paxman Valenta 12CM diesel generators powering two GEC electric motors delivering 2980kW (4000 shp) and two Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A delivering 23,190 kW (31,100 shp) to two shafts |
| Speed: | 28 knots, HMS Sutherland achieved 34.4 knots during high-speed trials (November 2008) |
| Range: | 14,485 km (9,000 miles) at 15 knots |
| Complement: | 185 |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
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| Armament: |
Anti-air missiles; Anti-ship missiles; Anti-submarine torpedoes; Guns; |
| Aircraft carried: | 1×Lynx HMA8, armed with;
1×Westland Merlin HM1, armed with;
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| Aviation facilities: |
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HMS Northumberland (F238) is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She is named after the Duke of Northumberland. She is based at Devonport.
Contents |
[edit] Service history
[edit] Construction
She was built by Swan Hunter in 1992 at Wallsend, was launched by her sponsor Lady Kerr in April 1992 and was accepted into Royal Naval Service in May 1994.
[edit] Drugs bust
Over two tonnes of cocaine (with a street-value of £135 million) were seized in November 1999 in the Caribbean Sea by Northumberland, in cooperation with a United States Coast Guard law enforcement detachment. [1]
[edit] 2004/05 refit
From July 2004 to July 2005 she underwent an extensive refit at Number 1 dock inner at Babcock's dockyard in Rosyth, her first refit since build. This equipped her with an updated suite of weapons and sensors (e.g. a modified 4.5" Gun and the latest Low Frequency Active Sonar) and of propulsion and mechanical systems. Improvements were also made to the living quarters and a state of the art galley to feed the Ship's Company. Large areas of corroded deck have also been replaced. Also replaced were corroded areas of the flight deck, improving the lighting system that the pilots will use during night landings and installing a new helicopter handling system to move a 13 ton Merlin helicopter safely in and out of the hangar. (Although the Type 23 was originally designed to operate the Merlin, Northumberland had previously only hosted the much smaller Lynx.) This means she will not need another refit until 2010-2011.
[edit] 2005-present
She rejoined the fleet by her attendance of "Bruno" at the Trafalgar 200 celebrations entertainment Newcastle-upon-Tyne, then embarked for her first period of sea training, starting with BOST (Basic Operational Sea Training) in January 2006, straight after the Christmas leave period.[2] For a time during 2006 she then accompanied the submarine HMS Torbay on her deployment to the US AUTEC (Acoustic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre) which is based on Andros Island in the Bahamas.[3] She returned from an 8 month deploment December 2010 on anti-piracy operations in the Gulf. Foiling many pirate hijacks on the worlds shipping.[citation needed] Reducing the number of overall pirated vessels in the months deployed.[citation needed]
[edit] Affiliations and visits
She is affiliated to various organisations in Northumberland (Northumberland County Council, the Light Dragoons, the Northumberland Foundation, the Bank Of England's North Eastern Regional Agency, the Calvert Trust, RAF Boulmer, the Copthorne Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne, and 'Spirit of Northumberland', the RNLI Tynemouth Lifeboat [4]), London (the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and the Worshipful Company of Bowyers) and Bedford (Dame Alice Harpur School, Bedford High School and Bedford School), along with Solihull School CCF, the Sea Cadets, and TS Tenacity SCC & TS Dreadnought (Greenwich, Deptford & Rotherhithe Sea Cadets)
In honouring these affiliations, she regularly visits Newcastle (most recently in February 2011) and London, most recently mooring along the north side of HMS Belfast during April 2007 as part of the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807. On that visit she was open to the public with a display on modern anti-slaving operations in which she and other ships of the Royal Navy take part. She also visited Baltimore in June 2006, Marmaris in Turkey in February 2003 and in October 2001 attended an Australian Fleet Review in Sydney.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: HMS Northumberland (F238) |
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