HMS Devonshire (D02)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	9 March 1959
Launched:	10 June 1960
Commissioned:	15 November 1962
Decommissioned:	1978
Fate:	Sunk as a target on 17 July 1984.
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load)
Length:	158.6 m
Beam:	53 ft
Draught:	20 ft
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combination of Steam and Gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Speed:	31.5 knots max
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6500 km)
Complement:	470
Armament:	1 x 2 Sea Slug Mk2 SAM (36 missiles); 2 x 4 Sea Cat GWS21 SAM (60 missiles); 4 x 4.5 in (114 mm) /45 DP (2 x 2); 2 x 20 mm AA; 6 x 324 mm torpedo tubes (2 x 3) ASW;
Aircraft:	Lynx or Wessex
Motto:

HMS Devonshire (D02) was the first unit of the County-class destroyers and the first Batch 1 ship of the Royal Navy. The ship was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead near Liverpool. With a displacement of 5,440 tonnes (6,850 tonnes full load), Devonshire was named after the English county of Devon. She was launched on June 10, 1960 and delivered to the navy two years later.

The ship was involved in patrol duties in the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean, but was not involved in any armed conflict of the United Kingdom. Like the other first batch of County Class ships, Devonshire was fitted with the Sea Slug anti aircraft missile defence system.

Devonshire was decommissioned under defence cuts in 1978. Laid up in Portsmouth harbour for six years, the ship was sunk by Sea Harriers as a target on 17 July 1984 in the North Atlantic.