Navy News - Ships of the Royal Navy

21 March 2010

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Fact Card - HMS Norfolk

Featured in Ships of the Royal Navy March 2003

Norfolk in Firefight Frontline

The frigate HMS Norfolk is currently quiet alongside in her home port of Devonport, but that is because the Type 23's crew have been significantly involved in Operation Fresco, the Navy's support during the firefighters strike.

Almost half of the ship's company were drafted for Fresco duties in September 2002, and deployed mainly to Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with some two dozen helping out their colleagues in Devon and Cornwall.

The majority of the people are involved with breathing apparatus rescue teams (BART) or rescue equipment support teams (REST), but others are manning Green Goddesses or working in admin and support functions for the firefighting teams.

Recently another 40 of the Type 23's company have been drafted to firefighting duties in order to relieve personnel deploying for Middle East contingency operations, and the ship is now dormant in her Plymouth home.

Prior to her firefighting duties, HMS Norfolk had been involved in NATO anti-terrorist shipping patrols in the eastern Mediterranean.

The ship returned home in July from her role in Operation Direct Endeavour within the Standing Naval Force Atlantic (SNFL).

HMS Norfolk was the first of the modern generation of Type 23 frigates, launched by Princess Margaret in July 1987 and taking up the mantle of Naval service in November 1989.

The present HMS Norfolk is the sixth Naval vessel to bear the name. Her most recent predecessor was a County-class destroyer - the first Navy ship to be fitted with the Exocet missile - built in 1967 and later sold to Chile in 1982 and renamed Prat.

The fourth Norfolk was also a County-class, but this time a 9,925-ton cruiser built on the Clyde in 1928.

She distinguished herself during World War II, playing a significant role in the actions that resulted in the sinking of the German Bismarck and Scharnhorst.

The two antecedents of these Norfolks were a cutter hired for Naval use from 1807-12, and a third rate built in 1757 and scrapped in 1774.

The original HMS Norfolk of 1693 was an 80-gun Ship of the Line which won her first Battle Honour at Velez Malaga against a Franco-Spanish Fleet in 1704.

Toward the end of her long life, she was renamed the Princess Amelia in 1755 and took on harbour in 1777. Eventually she was transferred to the customs service in 1788.


Facts and Figures

Class:	Type 23 frigate

Pennant number:	F230

Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilder Limited, Clyde

Launched:	July 11, 1987

Accepted:	November 24, 1989

Commissioned:	June 1, 1990

Displacement:	4,000 tonnes

Length:	133 metres

Beam:	16 metres

Speed:	28 knots (max)

Range:	7,800 nautical miles at 15 knots

Complement:	177 (not including Flight)

Propulsion:	Combined diesel-electric and gas: four 1.3mW Paxman Valenta diesels; two 1.5mW GEC Electric DC motors; two 12.75mW Rolls Royce Spey Gas Turbines; two GEC Double Reduction Gearboxes; two fixed pitch propellers

Weapons:	4.5in Mk 8 Gun Mod 1; eight McDonnell Douglas Harpoon; Sea Skua missiles; vertical launch Seawolf; two 30mm BMARC cannon; four 6-barrel Seagnat Chaff dispensers; magazine torpedo launch system with Stingray torpedoes and depth charges

Sensors:	996 Plessey surveillance radar; two 911 Marconi Seawolf trackers; BAE GPEQD; 2031E towed array sonar; 2050 bow sonar; UAT ESM system; and 1007 Kelvin Hughes and 1008 RACAL-DECCA navigational radars

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