HMS Montrose (F236)

HMS Montrose in 2005
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Montrose
Ordered:	July 1988
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down:	1 November 1989
Launched:	31 July 1992
Sponsored by:	Lady Rifkind
Commissioned:	2 June 1994
Refit:	Major 2014-2016
Homeport:	HMNB Devonport, Plymouth
Motto:	Mare ditat rosa decorat Latin: "The sea enriches and the rose adorns"
Status:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Type 23 frigate
Displacement:	4,900 t (4,800 long tons; 5,400 short tons)
Length:	133 m (436 ft 4 in)
Beam:	16.1 m (52 ft 10 in)
Height:	28.6 m (93 ft 10 in)
Draught:	7.3 m (23 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	CODLAG: Four 1,510 kW (2,020 shp) Paxman Valenta 12CM diesel generators Two GEC electric motors delivering 2,980 kW (4,000 shp) Two Rolls-Royce Spey SM1C delivering 23,190 kW (31,100 shp)
Speed:	In excess of 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range:	7,500 nautical miles (14,000 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement:	185 (accommodation for up to 205)
Electronic warfare & decoys:	UAT Mod 1 ESM Seagnat Type 2170 Surface Ship Torpedo Defence
Armament:	Anti-air missiles: 1 × 32-cell Sea Wolf GWS.26 VLS canisters for 32: Sea Wolf missiles (range 1-10 km) Anti-ship missiles: 2 × quad Harpoon launchers Anti-submarine torpedoes: 2 × Twin 12.75 in (324 mm) Sting Ray torpedo tubes Guns: 1 × BAE 4.5 inch Mk 8 naval gun 2 × 30mm DS30M Mk2 guns, or, 2× 30mm DS30B guns 2 × Miniguns 4 × General purpose machine guns
Aircraft carried:	1 × Lynx HMA8, armed with; 4 × Sea Skua anti ship missiles, or 2 × anti submarine torpedoes or 1 × Westland Merlin HM1, armed with; 4 × anti submarine torpedoes
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck Enclosed hangar

The current HMS Montrose is the eighth of the sixteen ship Type 23 or Duke class of frigates, of the Royal Navy, named after the Duke of Montrose. She was laid down in November 1989 by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde, and was launched on 31 July 1992 by Lady Rifkind (when, as Mrs Edith Rifkind, her husband Sir Malcolm Rifkind was Secretary of State for Defence). She commissioned into service in June 1994.

Having once been the flagship of the 6th Frigate Squadron, Montrose is now part of the Devonport Flotilla, based in Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth.

Deployments in the 1990s include her first trip to the South Atlantic, as Falkland Islands guardship, which ended in October 1996. Her first visit to the City of Dundee was in 1993. Several NATO deployments followed, and in early 2002, Montrose returned to the Falklands on the now-renamed Atlantic Patrol Task (South) deployment, during which divers from Montrose replaced the White Ensign on Antelope, which was sunk during the Falklands War. On her return from this deployment, she conducted her first refit period (RP1), which was completed in early January 2004.

In October 2004, Montrose was one of a number of ships that was dispatched to the rescue of the stricken Canadian submarine Chicoutimi (an ex-Royal Navy Upholder-class submarine) which had suffered a number of fires on board, causing casualties and the loss of power in the submarine. Montrose was the first Royal Navy vessel to make contact with the boat and assisted the submarine.

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Wikipedia