HMNZS Canterbury (F421)

History
New Zealand
Name:	HMNZS Canterbury (F421)
Namesake:	Canterbury Region
Operator:	Royal New Zealand Navy
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down:	12 June 1969
Launched:	6 May 1970
Commissioned:	22 October 1971
Decommissioned:	21 March 2005
Homeport:	Lyttelton
Fate:	Scuttled 3 November 2007 as an artificial reef
General characteristics
Class and type:	Leander-class frigate
Displacement:	2,945 tonnes full load
Length:	113.4 m (372 ft)
Beam:	13.1 m (43 ft)
Draught:	5.5 m (18 ft)
Propulsion:	2 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers delivering steam to 2 × English Electric geared steam turbines, 30,000 shp (22.4 MW) to 2 shafts
Speed:	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range:	3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Endurance:	30 days or 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	245 + 15 officers
Sensors and processing systems:	Air Search Radar: Signal LW-08 D Band: Range 265 km (165 mi) for 2 m2 (22 sq ft) target Air Surface Search Radar: Plessey Type 993 E/F Band Navigation Radar: Kelvin Hughes Type 1006 I band Hull Sonar: Graseby Type 750 Medium Frequency Active Electronic Surveillance: Argo Phoenix intercept and Jammer, Telegon PST 1288 HVU IFF system: Cossor Mk XII Data System: Plessey/Marconi Nautis F with Link 11 Weapons Control: RCA TR-76 I Band
Armament:	2 × Vickers 4.5"(113mm) L45 DP guns in one Mk 6 twin mounting Sea Cat missile system removed early 1990s and replaced by Phalanx CIWS 4 × 12.7 mm (1 in) AA guns Mod 5 Mark 46 torpedoes in Mark 32 torpedo tubes 2 × Mark 36 SRBOC Mod 1 chaff launchers
Aircraft carried:	Originally a Wasp helicopter, later a Kaman SH-2G, armed with Mod 2 ASW Mark 46 torpedoes Maverick AGM-65(NZ) Air-to-surface missile Depth charges M60 machine gun

HMNZS Canterbury (F421) was one of two broad beam Leander-class frigates operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1971 to 2005. She was built in Scotland and launched in 1970. Commissioned in 1971, Canterbury saw operational service in much of Australasia and other regions like the Persian Gulf. She undertook operations such as supporting UN sanctions against Iraq and peace-keeping in East Timor. With her sister ship HMNZS Waikato she relieved the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amazon in the Indian Ocean during the Falklands War. Early in HMNZS Canterbury's career she relieved the frigate HMNZS Otago at Moruroa during anti-nuclear protests, in 1973, F 421 being the most effectively insulated frigate, from nuclear fallout, with the Improved Broad Beam Leander steam plant, for e.g., being remote controlled and capable of unmanned operation and therefore the ship a more effective sealed citadel for operations in areas of nuclear explosions.

Canterbury was decommissioned in 2005. In 2007 she was scuttled in the Bay of Islands to provide a dive wreck. She lies in 38 metres (125 ft) of water.

Canterbury was the RNZN's fourth Type 12 frigate. She was laid down on 12 June 1969 by Yarrow Shipbuilders and launched 11 months later on 6 May 1970. She was the last Leander-class frigate and the last steam-driven warship to serve in New Zealand. The order for the ship went ahead after some controversy and doubt generated by the then Minister of Finance, Robert Muldoon. She was built at the end of the production line for Leanders to fit in with a British Government programme requiring seven more Leanders to be built for the Royal Navy, the RNZN and the Chilean Navy within 2.5 years using a modular construction.

She was the first Leander-class frigate to have the wells for Limbo mortars and VDS (dipping sonar) replaced and plated over to give a larger helicopter landing area, so helicopters larger than the original Wasp could land and operate from the ship. A closed TV system was also introduced so flight deck operations could be observed and accurately controlled from the ships operation room. These innovations were refitted to most of the Royal Navy Leander fleet, including Canterbury's sisters in the NZ fleet.

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