HMS Juno (F52)

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Career

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Laid down:	16th July 1964
Launched:	24th November 1965
Commissioned:	18th July 1967
Decommissioned:	4th November 1992
Fate:	Sold for scrap 1994
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HMS Juno (F52) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). Like the rest of the class, Juno was named after a figure of mythology. She was built by Thornycroft of Woolston. Juno was launched on the 24th November 1965 and commissioned on the 18th July 1967.

Juno had a variety of sunny deployments from commissioning in 1967 that culminated in a 1969 world cruise, visiting a variety of ports in many diverse nations on the way and steaming many thousands of miles in the process. Juno was one of a number of Leanders that undertook the Beira Patrol, a deployment designed to stop oil reaching landlocked Rhodesia via the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique. In 1976, Juno took part in the Third Cod War against Iceland during the fishing disputes with that country, and was, while on a Fishery Protection Patrol, rammed by the Icelandic gunboat Tyr, quite notorious in its aggression towards RN vessels. The ramming caused a minor fire. Juno made a second patrol, and was again confronted by the gunboat Tyr which rammed Juno yet again.

Juno underwent the modernisation that many other Leanders underwent. The modernisation included the removal of her single 4.5-in twin gun in favour of the Exocet anti-ship missile system, and had the amount of SeaCat missiles she carried, increased. Even with this modernisation, Juno's active service days were numbered.

In 1980, Juno joined the Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), a NATO multi-national squadron, a role Juno was familiar with, having often deployed with NATO multi-national squadrons. The following year, Juno, due to the 1981 Defence Review by the defence minister John Nott, was placed in Reserve when she joined the Standby Squadron. In 1985, Juno completed a four-year refit, which removed all her weapons and converted her into a navigational training ship. The following year Juno, as the navigational training ship ironically grounded in the Solent, which forced Juno to receive repairs. In 1987, Juno's bit of bad luck continued when she collided with the Type-21 frigate HMS Active. Juno decommissioned in November 1992. She was sold for scrap in 1994.