HMS Aurora (F10)

Aurora post IKARA conversion
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Aurora (F10)
Operator:	Royal Navy
Builder:	John Brown & Company
Cost:	£4.65m
Yard number:	721
Laid down:	1 June 1961
Launched:	28 November 1962
Commissioned:	9 April 1964
Recommissioned:	5 August 1967
Decommissioned:	28 April 1987
Refit:	Converted to IKARA Batch 1b Leander 4 December 1974 – 27 February 1976 – Chatham Dockyard. Conversion cost £15.58m
Homeport:	Chatham
Motto:	Post Tenebras Lux: 'After darkness light'
Fate:	Arrived for scrapping 6 September 1990 at Millom, Cumbria
General characteristics
Type:	Frigate
Displacement:	2,500 tons standard, 2,962 tons full load
Length:	113.4 metres (372 ft)
Beam:	13.1 metres (43 ft)
Draught:	4.5 metres (15 ft)
Propulsion:	2 Babcock & Wilcox oil-fired boilers, geared steam turbines, 22,370 kilowatts (30,000 hp), 2 shafts
Speed:	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range:	7,400 kilometres (4,600 mi; 4,000 nmi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	260
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar: Types 965 (air warning radar removed in batch 1 ships), 992Q, 903, 974/978 Sonar: Types 162, 184, 199
Armament:	Initial: 2 × 4.5 inch guns (1 × twin mounting Mk6) 1 × Seacat surface-to-air missile launcher 2 × 20mm guns (single mountings) 1 × ASW Limbo mortar Batch 1: 1 × Ikara Anti submarine missile launcher 2 × Seacat surface-to-air missile launchers 2 × 40mm guns - single mountings 2 × triple 324 mm (12.75) STWS-1 tubes for Mk 46 and Stingray ASW torpedoes 1 × Limbo ASW Mortar
Aircraft carried:	Initial and Batch 1: 1 × Westland Wasp ASW helicopter.

HMS Aurora (F10) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). Like other ships of the class, Aurora was named after a figure of mythology, Aurora being the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Eos.

History

HMS Aurora was built by John Brown & Company, shipbuilders of Clydebank, Scotland. Aurora was launched on 28 November 1962 and commissioned on 9 April 1964.

Aurora became the leader of the 2nd Frigate Squadron in 1964. On 17 April 1968, her Westland Wasp ASW helicopter from 829 Naval Air Squadron (s/n XS540, No. 455) crashed off South Africa. It was replaced by an aircraft (No. 444) from HMS Gurkha (F122). In 1972, during the Second Cod War, Aurora came to the aid of an Icelandic fishing vessel that had caught fire, rescuing its crew in the process. Soon after this incident, Aurora underwent modernisation which included the addition of the Ikara anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missile launcher that in effect changed the Batch One ships, of which Aurora was part, into a specialised ASW batch rather than its original role as a general-purpose batch. The modernisation was completed in 1976.

In 1978, Aurora joined the Fishery Protection Squadron, undertaking patrols and other duties in support of British fishing interests around the UK. She remained with the squadron until she was eventually transferred to the 7th Frigate Squadron, which was stationed in the Far East, just as the RN's presence in that region was steadily dwindling. Further duties were undertaken by Aurora across the world, but in 1987, due to defence cuts, as well as manpower shortages, a common problem for the RN at that time, Aurora was decommissioned.

Commanding officers

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References

• HMS Aurora (Clydebuilt Ships Database) (Retrieved February 2010)
• 1967-1969 Ship's Logs. National Archives, Kew

Publications

• 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. OCLC 67375475. 
• Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allen Ltd. ISBN 07110 1322 5