![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2012) |
![]() HMS Hampshire behind HMS Yarmouth (F101)
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History | |
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Name | HMS Hampshire |
Ordered | 27 January 1956 |
Builder | John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland |
Laid down | 26 March 1959 |
Launched | 16 March 1961 |
Commissioned | 15 March 1963 |
Decommissioned | 1976[1] |
Identification | Pennant number: D06 |
Fate | Sold for scrap in 1979 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | County-class destroyer |
Displacement |
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Length | |
Beam | 54 ft (16 m) |
Draught | 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range | 3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Complement | 471[2] |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 1 × Wessex helicopter |
HMS Hampshire was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Laid down, in March 1959 a couple of weeks behind the class leader Devonshire, she was classified as a guided missile destroyer, as the Sea Lords regarded the concept of the cruiser and big gun ship as discredited by the perceived failure of the Tiger class and the obsolescence of the heavy gun. The description of guided missile destroyer seemed more likely to win approval from the Treasury and Government for an adequate number of warships the size of small cruisers, which could play many traditional cruiser flagship and command functions, but had no armour around its gun and missile magazine.