HMS Vanguard (23)

Profile view of Vanguard
Class overview
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Lion class (planned) King George V class (actual)
Succeeded by:	None
Built:	1941–46
In commission:	1946–60
Completed:	1
Scrapped:	1
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Vanguard
Ordered:	14 March 1941 (1940 Emergency War Programme)
Builder:	John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Cost:	£11,530,503
Yard number:	567
Laid down:	2 October 1941
Launched:	30 November 1944
Commissioned:	12 May 1946
Decommissioned:	7 June 1960
Identification:	Pennant number: 23
Motto:	We Lead
Fate:	Scrapped 1960
Badge:	On a field blue, issuing from barry of four white and green a demi-lion gold supporting a spear issuing white
General characteristics (as completed)
Type:	Fast battleship
Displacement:	44,500 long tons (45,200 t) (standard) 51,420 long tons (52,250 t) (deep load)
Length:	814 ft 4 in (248.2 m)
Beam:	108 ft (32.9 m)
Draught:	36 ft (11.0 m) (deep load)\
Installed power:	130,000 shp (97,000 kW) 8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	4 shafts; 4 steam turbine sets
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range:	8,250 nautical miles (15,280 km; 9,490 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	1,975
Sensors and processing systems:	1 × Type 960 air-warning radar 1 × Type 293 target-indication radar 1 × Type 277 height-finding radar 2 × Type 274 15-inch fire-control radar 4 × Type 275 5.25-inch fire-control radar 11 × Type 262 40 mm fire-control radar
Armament:	4 × twin BL 15-inch (381 mm) guns 8 × twin QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) dual-purpose guns 10 × sextuple, 1 × twin, 11 × single 40 mm Bofors AA guns
Armour:	Belt: 4.5–14 in (114–356 mm) Deck: 2.5–6 in (64–152 mm) Barbettes: 11–13 in (279–330 mm) Gun turrets: 7–13 in (178–330 mm) Conning tower: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Bulkheads: 4–12 in (102–305 mm)

HMS Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during World War II and commissioned after the war. She was the only ship of her class and was the biggest, fastest and last of the Royal Navy's battleships and the final battleship to be launched in the world. Work on the ship's design commenced before the war because the Royal Navy anticipated being outnumbered by the combined German and Japanese battleships in the early 1940s. The British had enough 15-inch (380 mm) guns and turrets in storage to allow one ship of a modified Lion-class battleship design to be completed faster than the ships of that class that had already been laid down. Work on Vanguard was started and stopped several times during the war and even after construction had begun, her design was revised several times to reflect war experience. These stoppages and changes prevented her from being completed during the war.

Vanguard's first task after completing her sea trial at the end of 1946 was, early the next year, to convey King George VI and his family on the first Royal Tour of South Africa by a reigning monarch. While refitting after her return, she was selected for another Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1948. This was cancelled due to King George's declining health and Vanguard briefly became flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet in early 1949. After her return home in mid-1949, she became flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron. Throughout her career, the battleship usually served as the flagship of any unit to which she was assigned. During the early 1950s, Vanguard was involved in a number of training exercises with NATO forces. In 1953 she participated in Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Review. While she was refitting in 1955, the Admiralty announced that the ship was going to be put into reserve upon completion of the work. Vanguard was sold for scrap and was broken up beginning in 1960.