HMS Avenger (F185)

PNS Tippu Sultan, former HMS Avenger
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Avenger
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
Identification: Pennant number: F185
Honours and
awards:		 Falkland Islands 1982
Fate: Sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994
Pakistan
Name: PNS Tippu Sultan
Operator: Pakistan Navy
Acquired: 23 September 1994
Identification: Pennant number: D185
Status: in active service
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:
Speed: 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) official, 37 knots achievable on bursts
Range:
  • 4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) (7,400 km at 31 km/h)
  • 1,200 nmi at 30 knots (2,220 km at 56 km/h)
Complement: 177
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 1 × Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted for 1 × Alouette III and 1 × Westland Lynx

HMS Avenger 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.

Royal Navy service

En route to the Falklands with the Bristol Group

With the appointment of Captain Hugo White in 1981, Avenger became leader of the 4th Frigate Squadron. Avenger was a late arrival at the Falklands War, as she didn't leave the UK until 10 May 1982, arriving on 25 May - a record for any ship involved in the operations, and a massive distance in 14 days.[1] Collectively all Type 21s had a massive short distance high-speed ability thanks to the Rolls Royce Olympus turbines, but at the time the RN preferred this information not to be publicised. Avenger had averaged 28 knots and the Type 21s became nicknamed the Boy Racers.[2] Captain White led Avenger in the Falklands War surviving an attack by an Exocet missile which it shot out of the sky with the 4.5 inch mark 8 gun on the focsle of the ship. Her divers salvaged a 20mm Oerlikon from the wreck of HMS Antelope which was remounted to increase her anti-aircraft capability, referred to on board as "Antelopes Avenger".[3] She also assisted with naval gunfire support during the campaign.

On June 11, she was conducting naval bombardments of Port Stanley in preparation for an amphibious assault by British troops. She directly struck a house where civilians were sheltering, killing three Falkland Islander women and wounding several others. They were the only British civilian casualties of the Falklands War.[4][5]

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.

After the war she remained leader of the 4th Frigate Squadron until 1986.

Pakistan Navy service

Pakistan Naval Air Arm Alouette III on board Tippu Sultan at Portsmouth in 2005

Avenger was decommissioned and sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994, where she was refitted[6] and renamed Tippu Sultan. She is the third ship to carry this name[7] and remains in service with the Pakistan Navy as part of the 25th Destroyer Squadron.[8]

Commanding officers

•1978-1979 Cdr Geoff A Eades •1979-1981 Cdr Peter J A Ford •1981-1982 Capt Hugo M White F4 •1982-1983 Capt A Peter Woodhead F4 •1983 Lt Cdr/Cdr Andrew Gordon-Lennox (Temporary Command – See Armilla Patrol) •1983-1984 Capt A Bruce Richardson F4 •1985-1986 Capt Chris J S Craig F4 •1988-1989 Cdr Christopher V Ellison •1990-1991 Cdr Andrew J G Miller •1991-1992 Cdr Nigel R Owen •1993-1994 Cdr David H Durston

Notes

  1. ↑ Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allen Ltd, Surrey, p104
  2. ↑ "Admiral Sir Hugo White - obituary". Daily Telegraph. 10 Jun 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Marriott, Leo, 1983. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983, Ian Allen Ltd, Surrey, p104
  4. ↑ Steven P. Lee (February 13, 2012). Ethics and War: An Introduction (Cambridge Applied Ethics). Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-5217-2757-X.
  5. ↑ "Falklands War memorial unveiled at National Arboretum". BBC. 20 May 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "Pakistan". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  7. ↑ The Pakistan Society newsletter, October 2005
  8. ↑ Pakistan Navy: A Silent Force to Reckon with

Publications

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