![]() Bristol in 1982
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History | |
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Name | Bristol |
Namesake | Bristol |
Ordered | 17 April 1963 |
Builder | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
Laid down | 15 November 1967 |
Launched | 30 June 1969 |
Commissioned | 31 March 1973 |
Decommissioned | 28 October 2020 |
Identification | Pennant number: D23 |
Honours and awards | Falklands 1982 |
Fate | Disposal and Reserve Ships Organisation (DRSO) |
Badge | ![]() |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type 82 destroyer |
Displacement | 6,300 tons (standard), 7,100 tons (full)[1] |
Length | 155 m (507 ft) |
Beam | 17 m (55 ft) |
Draught | 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h) |
Range | 5,750 nautical miles (10,650 km) at 18 knots (33 km/h) |
Complement | 397 (30 officers) |
Sensors and processing systems | ADAWS-2 combat direction system
Type 965 air search radar (until 1984) Type 1022 2D air search radar (from 1984) Type 992Q low-angle search radar 2x Type 909 Sea Dart target illumination Type 978 navigation radar Type 170 search sonar Type 184 target indication sonar |
Electronic warfare & decoys | UAA1
Corvus chaff launcher (from 1979) Mark 36 SRBOC (from 1982) |
Armament | 4.5-inch (113mm) Mk 8 gun
GWS 30 Sea Dart SAM launcher (38 rounds + 10 additional warheads) Ikara A/S launcher (at least 24 rounds)(until 1984) Mark 10 'Limbo' A/S mortar (until 1979) 2 × twin Oerlikon/BMARC GCM-A03 30 mm guns (from 1983) 2 × Oerlikon/BMARC GAM-B01 20 mm guns (from 1983) 2 × Oerlikon 20 mm guns (from 1979) |
Aircraft carried | None (able to support heavy lift helicopters |
Aviation facilities | Flight deck added when Limbo removed and mortar well plated over |
HMS Bristol (D23) was a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy.[2][3] Bristol was intended to be the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s but the rest of the class and the CVA-01 carriers were cancelled as a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper which cut defence spending.
Following a long career which included the Falklands War, she was converted into a training ship in 1987. In 1991 while part of the Dartmouth training squadron, she suffered a boiler explosion that damaged the vessel beyond economical repair. No longer having enough value to be sold to another navy, she became a Harbour Training ship at HMS Excellent. She was decommissioned in Portsmouth on 28 October 2020.