HMS Dragon (D35)

Last updated

Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer HMS Dragon MOD 45153124.jpg
HMS Dragon in 2011
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameDragon
OrderedDecember 2000
Builder BVT Surface Fleet
Yard number1064 [1]
Laid down19 December 2005
Launched17 November 2008
Sponsored byMrs. Susie Boissier
Commissioned20 April 2012
Identification
Motto"We yield but to St George"
StatusIn refit
Badge HMS Dragon badge.svg
General characteristics
Class and type Type 45 Guided missile destroyer
Displacement8,000 [4] to 8,500 t (8,400 long tons; 9,400 short tons) [5] [6] [7]
Length152.4 m (500 ft 0 in)
Beam21.2 m (69 ft 7 in)
Draught7.4 m (24 ft 3 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
SpeedIn excess of 30  kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) [9]
RangeIn excess of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 18 kn (33 km/h) [9]
Complement191 [10] (accommodation for up to 235)
Sensors and
processing systems
Electronic warfare
& decoys
Armament
Aircraft carried
Aviation facilities
  • Large flight deck
  • Enclosed hangar

HMS Dragon is the fourth ship of the Type 45 or Daring-class air-defence destroyers built for the Royal Navy. She was launched in November 2008 and commissioned on 20 April 2012. [32]

Contents

Construction

Dragon's construction began at the then BAE Systems Naval Ships (later BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions) yard at Scotstoun on the River Clyde in December 2005, and by December 2007 the bow section was in place on the Govan slipway for mating with the other modules. Dragon launched from the slipway at Govan on 17 November 2008 at 3:00pm. [33] Her sponsor was Mrs Susie Boissier, wife of Vice Admiral Paul Boissier, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet and Chief of Staff. [34] She was fitted out at Scotstoun.

Sea trials

Dragon commenced her first set of contractor's sea trials on 5 November 2010. [35]

Dragon entered her home port of Portsmouth for the first time on 31 August 2011. [36]

Operational service

Dragon off Gibraltar in 2013 HMS Dragon Near Gibraltar MOD 45155272.jpg
Dragon off Gibraltar in 2013
Dragon operating with HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2019 British F-35 Jets land on board HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier MOD 45165431.jpg
Dragon operating with HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2019

Dragon joined the Royal Navy Surface Fleet on Friday, 20 April 2012. [37] On Friday 27 April, she made her maiden visit to Liverpool, staying for three days. She opened to the public on Saturday 28 April, with visitors able to see the inside of the ship, including the operations room.

In August 2013, it was reported Dragon was sailing with the USS Nimitz carrier group in the Arabian Sea, acting as the main point ship for aircraft control. [38] [39] In August 2013, several Typhoons from No. 6 Squadron RAF were exercising with Dragon and US fighters in the Persian Gulf. [40] It sailed westward to the Eastern Mediterranean. [41]

In April 2014, Dragon was deployed to waters north of Scotland, after sailing from Portsmouth to track the Russian warship Vice-Admiral Kulakov. [42] She was part of the Royal Navy's Atlantic Patrol Tasking in late 2014, visiting places such as the South Georgia Islands, the Falkland Islands, and a transit through the Panama Canal. [43]

October 2016, Dragon tracked two Russian corvettes in the Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay during a major deployment of Russian naval forces near the United Kingdom. [44]

On 11 February 2017, Dragon rescued the fourteen crew of the dismasted and adrift British yacht Clyde Challenger in the Atlantic Ocean 610 nautical miles (1,130 km) south west of Land's End, Cornwall. [45] Clyde Challenger was subsequently scuttled. [46]

A 26 November 2018 press-release claimed Dragon discovered a suspicious boat while on operation in the Middle East. Sailors and Royal Marines boarded the vessel, and found 148 bags containing 3,048 kg of hashish. [47]

15 March 2019, Dragon made its seventh drug seizure: 224 kg of heroin from a fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea. [48] During her time in the Arabian Sea, Dragon made eight drug busts and seized over eighteen tons of narcotics, a record for the number of successful busts and the total weight of drugs seized by a Royal Navy ship in the Middle East.

As of March 2019, HMS Montrose took over the current patrol role in the Middle East. [49] HMS Montrose replaced Dragon in the Persian Gulf in March 2019.

HMS Dragon began her power improvement refit in March 2022 and is expected to return to service in late 2024. [50]

Characteristics

Dragon features a red Welsh Dragon on each side of her bow, the only Royal Navy ship to be adorned in this way. The dragons were there when she was launched, but were removed in a 2011 refit. They were restored in 2016 following a fundraising campaign led by the British Warships Association. [51]

Affiliations

Dragon appeared in No Time to Die , the 25th film of the James Bond series. [57] The film inaccurately depicts the Type 45’s Aster Surface-to-Air missiles [58] as land attack missiles. Shooting for Dragon’s role in the film’s finale took place off the Faroe Islands in September of 2019. [59]

Notes

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