HMS Brave (F94)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Brave |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Builder: | Yarrow Shipbuilders |
| Laid down: | 24 May 1982 |
| Launched: | 19 November 1983 |
| Sponsored by: | Lady Bryson, wife of Admiral Sir Lindsay Bryson KCB, the Controller of the Navy |
| Commissioned: | 4 July 1986 in Portsmouth, Hampshire |
| Decommissioned: | 23 March 1999 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: F94 |
| Motto: |
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| Fate: | Sunk as a target vessel by HMS Sceptre and HMS Argyll |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type 22 frigate |
| Displacement: | 5,300 tonnes |
| Length: | 148.1 m (486 ft 9 in) |
| Beam: | 14.8 m (48 ft 6 in) |
| Draught: | 6.4 m (21 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A Gas Turbines; 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C Gas Turbines |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 250 (19 officers, 73 senior ratings, 173 junior ratings) |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Lynx HAS3 Mk.8 helicopter |
HMS Brave was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland and launched on 19 November 1983. Brave was decommissioned on 23 March 1999 and was expended as a target in August 2004 by the submarine Sceptre and frigate Argyll.
Brave cost some £250m to build and spent most of her first commission (1985–1987) as a trials ship. She achieved various firsts in her weapons and communications fit. Thus, from 1985–1987, Brave had a number of civilian military contractors' personnel embarked and Commander Coyote, the Seawolf trials mascot, became a familiar figure on board. She had a reputation as a "happy ship". It was not until the autumn of 1987 that she undertook Basic Operational Sea Training at Portland and joined the fleet as a fully worked-up unit and she became leader of the 9th Frigate Squadron.
Her programme from 1986 to 1987 included visits to Lowestoft, Gibraltar, Funchal, Madeira, Porto, London - alongside HMS Belfast in December 1986, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Alicante and Torquay. In January 1991 she was deployed to active service in the Gulf war. Whilst there she took on board the admiral of the fleet for the sea based task force. Her duties included guarding the gun ships, sonar tasks and mine watching. On a couple of occasions she came close to mines which had been dispatched by the Iraq military. Her main task during normal service was sonar patrols and between 1990 and 1992 carried out many successful patrols of the waters around the UK.
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