HMS Bristol (D23)
- Sea Dart antiaircraft missiles
- Ikara submarine defense missiles
- 1 × 11.3 cm L/55 Mk8 Sk
- 4 × 3.0 cm gun
- 4 × 2.0 cm gun
The HMS Bristol is a destroyer of the British Royal Navy. The single ship now serves as a training ship for cadets training.
History
In the 1960s, the Royal Navy began development of a new class heavy destroyer. These were designed as escorts for the planned aircraft carriers of the concept CVA -01. However, when in 1966, the carrier project was canceled surprising because it saw no need for the destroyer. The Royal Navy decided instead to build a new class of much smaller and less expensive destroyer, the Sheffield class. The located at that time already under construction, Bristol was thus completed the only ship of her class.
After the service in 1973, the Bristol has been used as an experimental ship for new missile systems in the Royal Navy. A key factor here was the introduction of Ikara missile for submarine defense and air defense system Sea Dart. In 1982, the Bristol has been posted in the context of the Falklands War to the Falklands to protect the British fleet against air raids Argentine combat aircraft.
The mid- 1980s, the Royal Navy then decided to phase out the Bristol. The destroyer of the Sheffield class had taken over the duties of Bristol completely and maintenance became increasingly uneconomic. In 1987, she replaced the HMS Kent as a training ship of the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, but remained fully operational and continued to participate in maneuvers. In 1991, a fundamental reconstruction of the ship, in which the entire armament removed and instead additional accommodations have been created on board, as the Bristol should serve as a training ship for cadets and members of the Naval Reserve in Portsmouth in the future. Since 1993 she is there in front of Whale Iceland in the north of the Naval Base Portsmouth at anchor. An essential part of the cadets of the Royal Navy begins today his training aboard the Bristol. It is also used for the training of foreign cadets. So there are, inter alia, regular exchange programs with the United States, Canada, India and South Africa. Total annual use of approximately 14,000 cadets from 21 states the ship.