Iroquois-class destroyer

HMCS Algonquin
Class overview
NameIroquois class
Builders
Operators Canadian Maritime Forces
Preceded byAnnapolis class
Succeeded byRiver class
Built1969–1973
In commission1972 – 2017
Planned4
Completed4
Lost1 (as target)
Retired4
Scrapped3
General characteristics as built
TypeDestroyer
Displacement5,100 long tons (5,200 t) deep load
Length129 m (423 ft 3 in)
Beam15 m (49 ft 3 in)
Draught4.42 m (14 ft 6 in)
Propulsion
Speed29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph)
Range4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi)
Complement280
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
Aircraft carried2 × CH-124 Sea King helicopters
Aviation facilitiesHangar and landing area with beartrap

Iroquois-class destroyers (also known as the DDG 280 class[1] or ambiguously as the Tribal class[2]) were a class of four helicopter-carrying, guided missile destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy. The ships were named to honour the First Nations of Canada.

The Iroquois class are notable as the first all-gas turbine powered ships of this type. Launched in the 1970s, they were originally fitted out for anti-submarine warfare, using two CH-124 Sea King helicopters and other weapons, while their Mk III RIM-7 Sea Sparrow anti-air missiles were sufficient only for point defense. A major upgrade programme in the 1990s overhauled them for area-wide anti-aircraft warfare with the installation of a vertical launch system for Standard SM-2MR Block IIIA missiles.

Due to their extended service lives, the Iroquois-class destroyers were used in a variety of operational roles. They served as flagships for NATO's maritime force, deployed as part of United Nations and NATO forces in the Adriatic, Arabian and Caribbean seas and Atlantic and Indian oceans. The destroyers also performed coastal security patrols and search and rescue missions nearer to Canada.

One was sunk in a live-fire exercise in 2007, two more were decommissioned in 2015 and the last in 2017.

  1. ^ Kasurak, Peter (2013). A National Force: The Evolution of Canada's Army, 1950-2000. UBC Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780774826419.
  2. ^ Macpherson and Barrie, p. 262