HMS Ambuscade (F172)

HMS Ambuscade was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland. She was sold to Pakistan in 1993 and is still in service as PNS Tariq.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Ambuscade.

Ambuscade firing her 4.5-inch gun
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Ambuscade
Builder: Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yard number: 1008
Laid down: 1 September 1971
Launched: 18 January 1973
Commissioned: 5 September 1975
Decommissioned: 28 July 1993
Identification: Pennant number: F172
Motto:
  • Tempori insidior
  • ("I bide my time")
Fate: Sold to Pakistan on 28 July 1993
General characteristics
Class and type: Type 21 frigate
Displacement: 3,250 tons full load
Length: 384 ft (117 m)
Beam: 41 ft 9 in (12.73 m)
Draught: 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range:
  • 4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
  • 1,200 nmi (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement: 177
Armament:
  • 1 × 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mark 8 naval gun
  • 2 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
  • 4 × MM38 Exocet missiles
  • 1 × quadruple Sea Cat SAMs
  • 2 × triple ASW torpedo tubes
  • 2 × Corvus chaff launchers
  • 1 × Type 182 towed decoy
Aircraft carried: 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted for 1 × Westland Lynx

Service history

Ambuscade was launched on 18 January 1973 by Lady Griffin, wife of the Controller of the Navy, and was commissioned at Devonport on 5 September 1975.[1] During 1976 and 1977 her commander was Peter Abbott who subsequently attained Flag rank.[2]

Ambuscade took part in the Falklands War of 1982, serving as an Electronic Warfare picket ship to the Task Force, and taking part in several naval gunfire support (NGS) missions.[1] On 25 May Ambuscade was targeted by two Exocet missiles fired by Argentine Super Étendard strike fighter aircraft. Ambuscade detected the aircraft at 30 miles and the missile launch at 22 miles, first with radar then visually and fired chaff in an attempt to confuse the missiles' seekers. Both missiles then locked-on to SS Atlantic Conveyor impacting her port quarter and she sank, whilst under tow on 28 May. [3] On the night of 13 June she fired 228 rounds of 4.5-inch shells during a Naval gunfire support (NGFS) mission in support of 2 Para, assault of Wireless Ridge.

On 27 April 1983, Ambuscade was conducting tactical manoeuvres with ships of the United States Navy in the Indian Ocean. During the course of the exercise, she collided with USS Dale resulting in part of her bows being torn away.[4] Ambuscade was laid up in Bombay for six weeks while a new bow was constructed and fitted.[5][6] There was enough damage to have Dale Dry docked when she returned to Jacksonville, Florida.

From November 1983 to February 1984, Ambuscade served as West Indies Guardship.[7][8] On 8 June 1984, Ambuscade went to the assistance of the schooner Stena of Sitoo, which had struck an object in the North Sea and been holed below the waterline.[9]

In late 1984, suffering from cracking in her hull, she was taken in for refitting, with a steel plate being welded down each side of the ship. At the same time modifications were made to reduce hull noise and Exocet launchers were added in 'B' position.

List of Deployments[10]
From To Detail Note
19751976Sea trials
19771977Standing Naval Force Atlantic6 months
197819785th Frigate Squadron and cruiser HMS Blake. Western Atlantic and Pacific5 months
19791979UK waters
19791979Belize and West Indies Guardship
19801980Refit at Devonport
19811982Sea training. Armilla Patrol
19821982South Atlantic (Falklands War)
19831983Collision while on Armilla Patrol
19831984West Indies Guardship
19841986Refit at Devonport
19861987Falklands Guardship
19881988West Indies Guardship
19891989UK and Europe
19901990Falklands Guardship
19911991West Indies Guardship
19921992Falklands Guardship
19931993Sold to the Pakistan Navy
HMS Ambuscade at the HM Dockyard Bermuda (HMS Malabar) in 1988
gollark: Then the rules shall be editatteed.
gollark: Probably not, just add a rule talking about how the existing processing rules map to batch tasks.
gollark: What? No, probably not, you would just wait 150 minutes.
gollark: I mean more like being able to queue up batch operations on furnaces/mines or something, so you can say "process 10 clay into 10 brick" and your stuff will be busy for 150 minutes.
gollark: Hmm, perhaps. Maybe a thing where you can queue a bunch of actions to run in a batch?

References
  1. Gough, Richie (30 August 2014). "Ambuscade Service History". Type 21 Club. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  2. Gough, Richie (30 August 2014). "HMS Ambuscade (F172)". Type 21 Club. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  3. Image showing the missile track from a declassified memo to cabinet on the 2nd of June 1982.
  4. "HMS Ambuscade". ClydeBuilt Database. Archived from the original on 6 November 2004. Retrieved 8 November 2009.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  5. "Collision with USS Dale 1983". HMS Ambuscade Association. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
  6. http://www.ambuscade.org.uk/Amb_Collision01-1.htm
  7. Critchley 1992, p. 137
  8. "Ambuscade changes the guard" (PDF). Navy News. March 1984. p. 14. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  9. "Air-sea aid for holed schooner". The Times (61853). London. 9 June 1984. col A, B, p. 3.
  10. "RN Career and Programme". HMS Ambuscade Association. Retrieved 9 October 2019.

Bibliography
  • "Home". HMS 'Ambuscade' Association.
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