PNS Tippu Sultan, former HMS Avenger |
|
| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Avenger (F185) |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Builder: | Yarrow Shipbuilders |
| Laid down: | 30 October 1974 |
| Launched: | 20 November 1975 |
| Commissioned: | 15 April 1978 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 September 1994 |
| Homeport: | HMNB Devonport |
| Honours and awards: |
Falkland Islands 1982 |
| Fate: | Sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994 |
| Notes: | Pennant = F185 |
| Career (Pakistan) | |
| Name: | PNS Tippu Sultan |
| Operator: | Pakistan Navy |
| Acquired: | 23 September 1994 |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| Notes: | Pennant = D185 |
| 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: | COGOG: 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1A gas turbines for cruising |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,000 nmi at 17 knots (7,400 km at 31 km/h) 1,200 nmi at 30 knots (2,220 km at 56 km/h) |
| Complement: | 177 |
| Armament: |
Royal Navy: 1× 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mark 8 naval gun 2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 1× 6-cell LY-60N SAM 1× Phalanx CIWS 2× Mark 36 SRBOC chaff launchers |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted for 1 × Alouette III and 1 × Lynx |
HMS Avenger (F185) was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy. Built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, she was completed with Exocet launchers in 'B' position.
With the appointment of Captain Hugo White in 1981, Avenger became leader of the 4th frigate squadron. Captain White led Avenger in the Falklands War surviving an attack by an Exocet missile, it was shot out of the sky with the 4.5 inch mark 8 gun on the fo'c's'le of the ship.
During the Falklands deployment, an alarming crack in the ship's hull progressively worsened with the stormy South Atlantic weather. On return to UK, she was taken in for refitting, with a steel plate being welded down each side of the ship to eliminate the problem. At the same time modifications were made to reduce hull noise.
Avenger was decommissioned and sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994, where she was refitted [1] and renamed Tippu Sultan. She is the third ship to carry this name [2] and remains in service with the Pakistan Navy as part of the 25th Destroyer Squadron of the fleet.[3]
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