Nearly 15 years after being first mooted, eight years since Britain decided to pull out of the Anglo-Italian-UK Project Horizon, four years after being laid down, 17 months on from her launch, the first of the Navy’s next-generation destroyers slipped her moorings at Scotstoun and headed down Glasgow’s great artery under her own power for the first time, aided by the tug Bruiser.

A mixed crew of HMS Daring’s ship’s company and engineers and shipwrights from BAE Systems – who have shared construction of the Type 45 warship with the VT Group in Portsmouth – took the destroyer down the Clyde for sea trials off Scotland’s west coast.

Those trials involve testing Daring’s innovative all-electric propulsion system, and her manoeuvring and navigational systems to ensure the ship is seaworthy and safe to sail on the high seas.

“This is a great moment for everybody who has been involved in the Type 45 Destroyer project since its inception – the first time Daring has moved and steered under her own power,” said Cdr David Shutts, Daring’s Marine Engineer Officer and Senior Naval Officer.

“I and the rest of the ship’s company – and the many contractors’ staff on board – had been looking forward to this event for a long time. It’s not every day you take a First-of-Class warship to sea.”

Following that, her main 4.5in gun will fire at the range in Benbecula – not to test the gun itself, which is a proven weapon, but to measure the loads and stresses it places on Daring’s hull.

This is the beginning of a very long road for Daring; she will not see her future home base of Portsmouth before the end of next year and will not officially be in service until 2009.

There is also the small matter of her missile system to test; a trials barge, Longbow, is due to sail to the Mediterranean to marry the Sampson radar (hidden inside the ‘Sputnik’ ball on a Type 45’s main mast) with the Aster missile.

Daring is the first all-electric ship in the Fleet, producing 40 Megawatts of power (apparently more than enough to supply the good folk of Dundee).