HMS Glasgow (D88)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	16 May 1974
Launched:	14 April 1976
Commissioned:	25 May 1977
Decommissioned:	1 February 2005
Fate:	Awaiting Disposal
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	4,820 tonnes
Length:	125 m (410 ft)
Beam:	14.3 m (47 ft)
Draught:	5.8 m
Propulsion:	4 Rolls-Royce (2 Olympus and 2 Tyne) producing 36 MW COGAG (Combined Gas and Gas) arrangement
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	287
Armament:	Sea Dart missiles 4.5 in (114 mm) Mk 8 gun
Aircraft:	Lynx HMA8
Motto:

HMS Glasgow (D88) is a Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built at Swan Hunter Shipyard in Wallsend, Tyneside and launched on April 14, 1976 by Lady Kirstie Treacher, wife of Admiral Sir John Treacher. With a displacement of 4,820 tonnes, Glasgow is the 6th and last Batch 1 Type 42 Destroyer in the Fleet. Named after the Scottish city of Glasgow she is the eighth ship to bear the name.

Glasgow was among five Type 42 destroyers sent as part of the Task Force sent to retake the Falkland Islands after invasion by Argentina in 1982. Armed with Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile system, Glasgow along with its sister ships, Sheffield and Coventry were among the first ships to arrive in a 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusion zone imposed by the British around the islands.

Glasgow saw early action in the war when on May 2 her Lynx chopper badly damaged the Argentine naval vessel Alferez Sobral. On May 3, Glasgow detected an Exocet missile fired at the Task Force and warned the fleet. However Sheffield failed to receive the warning and was hit, later sinking. Down to two Type 42s (Exeter and Cardiff would not arrive until the end of May), Glasgow and Coventry were left to long range defence of the fleet.

However on May 12, Glasgow alongside HMS Brilliant were on a "42-22" combo whereby Glasgow's Sea Dart long range missiles would complement Brilliant's short range Sea Wolf missiles on anti-aircraft attacks. The ships attracted the attention of the Argentine Airforce when a wave of Skyhawk jets attacked. Although Glasgow's Sea Dart system failed, Brilliant's Sea Wolf shot down three jets. When a second wave of Skyhawks attacked, Sea Wolf also failed and the jets released three bombs, one of which damaged Glasgow, although it did not explode.

The damage inflicted on Glasgow was severe enough for the destroyer to head back to England for repairs, the first ship of the war to return.

In later years, Glasgow served on a variety of missions, including service in East Timor. In early 2004 the ship was deployed on the Atlantic Patrol South tasking.

It was announced in July 2004, as part of the Delivering Security in a Changing World review, that Glasgow would be decommissoned in January 2005. Glasgow was finally decommissioned on the 1st February 2005.

See HMS Glasgow for other ships of the same name.

Type 42 destroyer

Royal Navy