HMS Kent (D12)

HMS Kent, c1963 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Kent
Ordered:	6 February 1957
Builder:	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Laid down:	1 March 1960
Launched:	27 September 1961
Commissioned:	15 August 1963
Decommissioned:	1980
Struck:	1993
Identification:	Pennant number: D12
Fate:	Sold for scrap in 1998
General characteristics
Class and type:	County-class destroyer
Displacement:	5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load)
Length:	158.6 m (520 ft 4 in)
Beam:	53 ft (16 m)
Draught:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Speed:	31.5 knots (58.3 km/h)
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km)
Complement:	470
Armament:	1× Sea Slug GWS.2 twin-arm SAM launcher(36 missiles) 2× Sea Cat GWS.21 twin-arm SAM launcher(60 missiles) 4× 4.5 in (114 mm) /45 DP (2× twin gunned turret) 2× 20 mm AA 2× triple-tubes for 12¾ inch (324 mm) ASW torpedo
Aircraft carried:	1× Lynx or Wessex helicopter
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter

HMS Kent was a batch-1 County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She and her sisters were equipped with the Sea Slug Mk-1 medium-range surface-to-air missile SAM system, along with the short-range Sea Cat SAM, two twin 4.5-inch gun turrets, two single 20mm cannon, ASW torpedo tubes, and a platform and hangar that allowed her to operate one Wessex helicopter. The County class were large ships, with good seakeeping abilities and long range, and were ideal blue-water ships for their time.

After her commissioning and work-up, Kent spent the balance of her career as an escort to the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier fleet. She deployed at various times with Victorious, Eagle, and Hermes in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. She was hard worked throughout the 1960s, along with her batch-1 County sister ships, as they were the only guided missile-armed destroyers in the fleet until the later half of the 1960s.

One role was as host ship for the Withdrawal from Empire negotiations in Gibraltar. She suffered a fire during refitting in 1976 but was soon repaired and was present for the Silver Jubilee fleet review of 1977. All four of the batch-1 County-class vessels were to have mid-life refits and the superior Sea Slug Mk-2 system fitted; however, this was cancelled due to the mid-1970s cut-backs of RN funds and Hampshire and Devonshire paid off early in 1976 and 1978 respectively. Some of the improvements in the second group of County destroyers, were fitted; Kent and London had their Seacat directors updated from GWS21 to GWS22, and the later model of 992 radar target indicator was on Devonshire, Kent and London by May 1974.