![]() HMS Montrose in 2005
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History | |
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Name | Montrose |
Ordered | July 1988 |
Builder | Yarrow Shipbuilders |
Laid down | 1 November 1989 |
Launched | 31 July 1992 |
Sponsored by | Lady Rifkind |
Commissioned | 2 June 1994 |
Decommissioned | 17 April 2023 |
Refit | LIFEX 2014–2017 |
Homeport | HMNB Portsmouth |
Identification |
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Motto |
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Status | Decommissioned |
Badge | ![]() |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type 23 frigate |
Displacement | 4,900 t (4,800 long tons) |
Length | 133 m (436 ft 4 in) |
Beam | 16.1 m (52 ft 10 in) |
Height | 28.6 m (93 ft 10 in) |
Draught | 7.3 m (23 ft 11 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | In excess of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Range | 7,500 nmi (14,000 km; 9,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement | 185 (accommodation for up to 205) |
Electronic warfare & decoys |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried |
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Aviation facilities |
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HMS Montrose was the eighth of the sixteen-ship Type 23 or Duke class of frigates, of the Royal Navy, named after the Duke of Montrose. She was laid down in November 1989 by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde, and was launched on 31 July 1992 by Edith Rifkind (later Lady Rifkind), wife of (later Sir) Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Defence. She was commissioned into service in June 1994.
Having once been the flagship of the 6th Frigate Squadron, Montrose became part of the Devonport Flotilla, based in Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth.[3] In 2018, it was announced that Montrose would become the first Royal Navy frigate to be forward-deployed to the UK Naval Support Facility in Bahrain.[4] The 2021 defence review announced that the ship would now be retired early, likely after her return to the U.K. from the Persian Gulf. She was deployed on maritime security operations in the Persian Gulf up to November 2022.[5] On 5 January 2022 the frigate passed the 1,000-day milestone of days at sea[6] and in November of that year departed the Persian Gulf to return to the U.K. ahead of her planned decommissioning, expected in spring 2023.[7] She was subsequently decommissioned on 17 April 2023.