HMS Kent (D12)

HMS Kent was a batch-1 County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She and her sisters were equipped with the Sea Slug Mk-1 medium-range surface-to-air missile SAM system, along with the short-range Sea Cat SAM, two twin 4.5-inch gun turrets, two single 20mm cannon, ASW torpedo tubes, and a platform and hangar that allowed her to operate one Wessex helicopter. The County class were large ships, with good seakeeping abilities and long range, and were ideal blue-water ships for their time.

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

HMS Kent, c1963 (IWM)
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Kent
Namesake: Kent
Ordered: 6 February 1957
Builder: Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Laid down: 1 March 1960
Launched: 27 September 1961
Commissioned: 15 August 1963
Decommissioned: 1980
Stricken: 1993
Identification: Pennant number: D12
Fate: Sold for scrap in 1998
General characteristics
Class and type: County-class destroyer
Displacement: 5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load)
Length: 158.6 m (520 ft 4 in)
Beam: 53 ft (16 m)
Draught: 20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion: COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Speed: 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h)
Range: 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km)
Complement: 470
Armament:
  • 1× Sea Slug GWS.2 twin-arm SAM launcher(36 missiles)
  • 2× Sea Cat GWS.21 twin-arm SAM launcher(60 missiles)
  • 4× 4.5 in (114 mm) /45 DP (2× twin gunned turret)
  • 2× 20 mm AA
  • 2× triple-tubes for 12¾ inch (324 mm) ASW torpedo
Aircraft carried: 1× Lynx or Wessex helicopter
Aviation facilities: Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter

Construction and design

Kent was one of two County-class destroyers ordered under the British Admiralty's 1956–57 shipbuilding programme.[1] She was laid down at Harland & Wolff's Belfast shipyard on 1 March 1960[2] and launched by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent on 27 September 1961.[3] The ship was completed on 15 August 1963.[2]

Kent was 521 feet 6 inches (158.95 m) long overall and 505 feet (153.92 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 54 feet (16.46 m) and a draught of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). Displacement was 6,200 long tons (6,300 t) normal and 6,900 long tons (7,000 t) deep load.[2] The ship was propelled by a combination of steam turbines and gas turbines in a Combined steam and gas (COSAG) arrangement, driving two propeller shafts. Each shaft could by driven by a single 15,000 shaft horsepower (11,000 kW) steam turbine (fed with steam at 700 pounds per square inch (4,800 kPa) and 950 °F (510 °C; 783 K)) from Babcock & Wilcox boilers[4]) and two Metrovick G6 gas turbines (each rated at 7,500 shaft horsepower (5,600 kW)), with the gas turbines being used for high speeds and to allow a quick departure from ports without waiting for steam to be raised.[5] Maximum speed was 30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h) and the ship had a range of 3,500 nautical miles (4,000 mi; 6,500 km) at 28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h).[6][2]

A twin launcher for the Seaslug anti-aircraft missile was fitted aft.[6] The Seaslug GWS1 was a beam riding missile which had an effective range of about 19 mi; 31 km.[7] Up to 39 Seaslugs could be carried horizontally in a magazine that ran much of the length of the ship.[8][9] Close-in anti-aircraft protection was provided by a pair of Seacat (missile) launchers, while two twin QF 4.5 inch Mark V gun mounts were fitted forward. A helicopter deck and hangar allowed a single Westland Wessex helicopter to be operated.[2]

A Type 965 long-range air-search radar and a Type 278 height-finding radar was fitted on the ship's mainmast, with a Type 992Q navigation radar and an array of ESM aerials were mounted on the ship's foremast. Type 901 fire control radar for the Seaslug missile was mounted aft.[10] Type 184 sonar was fitted.[7]

Operational service

After her commissioning and work-up, Kent spent the balance of her career as an escort to the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier fleet. She deployed at various times with Victorious, Eagle, and Hermes in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. She was hard worked throughout the 1960s, along with her batch-1 County sister ships, as they were the only guided missile-armed destroyers in the fleet until the later half of the 1960s.

One role was as host ship for the Withdrawal from Empire negotiations in Gibraltar. She suffered a fire during refitting in 1976 but was soon repaired and was present for the Silver Jubilee fleet review of 1977.

In the late 1960s all four of the batch-1 County-class vessels were planned to be upgraded with the superior Sea Slug Mk-2 system, but the upgrades were cancelled in 1967–68 because the amount of time the ships would be out of the operational fleet while being refitted. [11] Hampshire and Devonshire paid off early in 1976 and 1978 respectively. Some of the improvements in the second group of County destroyers, were fitted; Kent and London had their Seacat directors updated from GWS21 to GWS22, and the later model of 992 radar target indicator was on Devonshire, Kent and London by May 1974.

Decommissioning and harbour service

Kent was decommissioned in the summer of 1980, after only 17 years of active service and became the replacement for HMS Fife and Fleet Training Ship (FTS), moored to the lower end of Whale Island outboard of the defunct support ship HMS Rame Head opposite Fountain Lake, Portsmouth Naval Base. At the beginning of the Falklands War, she was surveyed for possible recommissioning (her large size, helicopter deck and four 4.5-inch guns would have made her a good command and shore bombardment ship), but her two years of unmaintained status meant a substantial amount of refit would be required to make her seaworthy, and no work was begun.

HMS Kent as a training ship, 1989

She spent 1982 through to 1984 as a live asset for artificer and mechanic training supporting HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan, her machinery largely in serviceable condition.

In 1984 she also became a harbour training ship for the Sea Cadet Corps. She was paid off from this in 1987 and became a training hulk at Portsmouth until stricken in 1993, though she lingered on, tied up to the same pier at Portsmouth Naval Base until 1996.

Kent was sold for scrap, and in 1998 she was towed to India to be broken up.[12]

Commanding officers
FromToCaptain
19631964Captain John G Wells RN
19641965Captain Andrew M Lewis RN
19651967Captain R A Begg RN
19671968Captain Bernard D McIntyre RN
19681968Captain Iwan Raikes RN
19681969Captain Richard P Clayton RN
19691972In refit
19721973Captain Alfred R Rawbone RN
19731975Captain John B Robathan RN
19751976Captain John B Hervey RN
19761977Captain Jock Slater MVO RN
19771979Captain Richard Turner RN
19791980Captain J P Gunning RN
19801980Captain Kenneth H Forbes-Robertson RN
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See also

Media related to HMS Kent (D12) at Wikimedia Commons

References
  1. Friedman 2008, pp. 192, 330
  2. Gardiner & Chumbley 1995, p. 508
  3. "A Third Guided Missile Ship Launched: Kent named". Navy News. October 1961. p. 1. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  4. Blackman 1971, p. 346
  5. Marriott 1989, pp. 102, 110
  6. Marriott 1989, p. 110
  7. Friedman 2008, p. 192
  8. Friedman 2008, p. 188
  9. Marriott 1989, p. 102
  10. Marriott 1989, p. 105
  11. Friedman 2008, pp. 192–193
  12. History : HMS Kent : Type 23 Frigates : Surface Fleet : Operations and Support : Royal Navy Archived 10 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine

Publications
  • Blackman, Raymond V. B. (1971). Jane's Fighting Ships 1971–72. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0-354-00096-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Friedman, Norman (2008). British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-015-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen (1995). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Marriott, Leo (1989). Royal Navy Destroyers Since 1945. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1817-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • McCart, Neil, 2014. County Class Guided Missile Destroyers, Maritime Books. ISBN 978-1904459637
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