HMCS St. John's (FFH 340)

HMCS St. John's in Charleston, South Carolina in 2010
History
Canada
Name:	St. John's
Namesake:	St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Builder:	Saint John Shipbuilding Ltd., Saint John
Laid down:	24 August 1994
Launched:	26 August 1995
Commissioned:	24 June 1996
Homeport:	CFB Halifax
Motto:	Avancez (Advance)
Honours and awards:	Arabian Sea
Status:	in active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Halifax-class frigate
Displacement:	3,995 tonnes (light) 4,795 tonnes (operational) 5,032 tonnes (deep load)
Length:	134.2 m (440.3 ft)
Beam:	16.5 m (54.1 ft)
Draught:	7.1 m (23.3 ft)
Propulsion:	2 × LM2500 gas turbines 1 × SEMT Pielstick diesel engine
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range:	9,500 nmi (17,600 km; 10,900 mi)
Complement:	245 (including air detachment)
Armament:	24 × Honeywell Mk 46 torpedoes 16 × Evolved Sea Sparrow SAM 8 × RGM-84 Harpoon SSM 1 × 57 mm Bofors MkII gun 1 × 20 mm Vulcan Phalanx CIWS 6 × .50 calibre machine guns
Aircraft carried:	1 × CH-124 Sea King

HMCS St. John's is a Halifax-class frigate that has served in the Canadian Forces and the Royal Canadian Navy since her commissioning in 1996. She is the eleventh of twelve ships in her class which is based on the Canadian Patrol Frigate Project. St. John's is named after the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, a port city associated with Canadian naval history and heritage, and is the first ship in the Royal Canadian Navy to bear the name. St. John's serves on Canadian Armed Forces missions protecting Canada's sovereignty in the Atlantic Ocean and enforcing Canadian laws in its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone. St. John's has been deployed on missions throughout the Atlantic Ocean, to the Indian Ocean; specifically the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea on anti-terrorism operations, to the north as far as Grise Fjord and to the Caribbean where she played a role in helping to stop the flow of illicit drugs to North America. She is assigned to Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and her homeport is in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Halifax-class frigate design, emerging from the Canadian Patrol Frigate Project, was ordered by the Canadian Forces in 1977 as a replacement for the aging St. Laurent, Restigouche, Mackenzie, and Annapolis classes of destroyer escorts, which were all tasked with anti-submarine warfare.St. John's was ordered in December 1987 as part of the second batch of frigates. To reflect the changing long term strategy of the Navy during the 1980s and 1990s, the Halifax-class frigates was designed as a general purpose warship with particular focus on anti-submarine capabilities.