HMS Marlborough (F233)

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Portsmouth Dockyard from the water. - geograph.org.uk - 290678.jpg
HMS Marlborough in Portsmouth Harbour in 2005
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameMarlborough
Namesake Marlborough
OrderedSeptember 1986
Builder Swan Hunter
Laid down27 October 1987
Launched21 January 1989
Commissioned14 June 1991
Decommissioned8 July 2005
Motto
FateSold to Chile
Badge Marlboroughcrest.jpg
2019-03-19 02 CNS ALMIRANTE CONDELL (FF-06) - IMO 8949616.jpg
Almirante Condell at the port of Valparaiso, Chile in 2019
Flag of Chile.svgChile
NameAlmirante Condell
Commissioned28 May 2008
Refit2021
Homeport Valparaiso
StatusActive
Badge ESCU-00725.png
General characteristics
Class and typeDuke-class Type 23 frigate
Displacement4,900 tonnes
Length133 m (436 ft 4 in)
Beam16.1 m (52 ft 10 in)
Draught7.3 m (23 ft 11 in)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
  • 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) on diesel-electric
Range7,800  nmi (14,400 km; 9,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement185
Armament
Aircraft carried Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma or Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin

Almirante Condell is a Duke-class Type 23 frigate in service with the Chilean Navy. It entered service with the Royal Navy in 1991 with the name HMS Marlborough as the sixth ship to bear the name. She was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and served in the Middle East. The frigate was taken out of service in 2005 and sold to Chile. The vessel entered service with the Chilean Navy in 2008 and was renamed Almirante Condell after Carlos Condell, a Chilean naval officer during the War of the Pacific. The ship was significantly upgraded from 2020 to 2021 and remains in service.

Contents

Service history

Royal Navy

Marlborough is a Duke-class Type 23 frigate and carried pennant number F233 rather than the sequential number of F232 which was considered unlucky, Form S.232 being the formal notification of a grounding or collision. The course 232 is also traditionally not given for the same reason, with a course heading of half degree either side of 232 being the alternative.

Marlborough was the first naval ship on the scene to assist the stricken USS Cole after she was attacked in Aden, Yemen in October 2000. Marlborough, under the command of Captain Anthony Rix, was on passage to the UK after a six-month deployment in the Gulf and had a full medical detachment on board. When her offer of assistance was accepted, she immediately diverted to Aden.

On 27 October 2001, the ship's Lynx helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea after an Omani warship collided with the aircraft as it was hovering above the water. The pilot and observer suffered minor injuries and were taken onboard the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The incident happened during exercise ‘Saif Sareea’ (Swift Sword) a joint exercise between British and Omani forces. The Lynx was dropping a dummy torpedo into the sea when an Omani vessel sailed into it from behind, catching the helicopter's rotor blades on its rigging. [1]

Marlborough played a key role in the second Gulf War, under the command of Captain Mark Anderson.

In July 2004, it was announced that Marlborough would be one of three Type 23 ships to be decommissioned by the end of 2006. In October 2004 Marlborough again came to the aid of a stricken ally when she was dispatched to assist the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi, adrift off the northwest Irish coast and arrived at the scene where RFA Wave Knight and Marlborough's sister-ship HMS Montrose were present. Montrose had been the first ship to make contact with the boat. Other ships were also dispatched, including RFA Argus.

Prior to her decommissioning, Marlborough had a US Navy officer permanently assigned to her crew. Reciprocally, a Royal Navy officer was permanently assigned to the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill.

Transfer to Chile

The 2003 defence cuts committed Marlborough to pay off by March 2006. In June 2005, it was announced that Marlborough would be sold to the Chilean Navy. [2] The Chilean Navy officially welcomed their new Almirante Condell into the fleet at a commissioning ceremony on 28 May 2008. The vessel was the last of three former Royal Navy Type 23 frigates to be handed over to Chile, under a £134 million pound sales agreement arranged by the Ministry of Defence's Disposal Services Authority and signed in September 2005. She joins her sister ships in the Chilean Navy, the former HMS Norfolk and HMS Grafton, handed over in November 2006 and March 2007 respectively.

Along with other Chilean vessels of her class, Almirante Condell underwent a significant upgrade from September 2020 to October 2021. The CMS 330 combat management architecture was installed along TRS-4D G-Band active scanning radars and 32 CAMM Sea Ceptor vertical-launch surface-to-air missile silos to replace the previous Sea Wolf SAM system. [3]

Related Research Articles

Type 23 frigate Class of frigates built for the Royal Navy

The Type 23 frigate or Duke class is a class of frigates built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The ships are named after British Dukes, thus leading to the class being commonly known as the Duke class. The first Type 23, HMS Norfolk, was commissioned in 1989, and the sixteenth, HMS St Albans was commissioned in June 2002. They form the core of the Royal Navy's destroyer and frigate fleet and serve alongside the Type 45 destroyers. They were designed for anti-submarine warfare, but have been used for a range of uses. Nine Type 23 frigates remain in service with the Royal Navy, with three vessels having been sold to the Chilean Navy and four being retired since 2021.

HMS <i>Norfolk</i> (F230) 1990 Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Norfolk was a British Type 23 frigate, the sixth in the Royal Navy to use this name, laid down in 1985 by Yarrow Shipbuilders. She was launched on the Clyde by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon in July 1987 and named for the Dukedom of Norfolk. She was commissioned on 1 June 1990. Norfolk was the 'first of class', as well as being the first of a new generation of 'lean manned' ships. She was commissioned into the Chilean Navy in 2006 as Almirante Cochrane.

HMS <i>Montrose</i> (F236) Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy

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HMS <i>Argyll</i> (F231) 1991 Type 23 or Duke-class frigate of the Royal Navy

The third HMS Argyll is a Type 23 Duke-class frigate. Commissioned in 1991 and prior to her retirement, Argyll was the oldest serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy. Like all of her class she was named after a British dukedom, in this case that of Argyll. HMS Argyll was laid down in March 1987 by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Glasgow, and launched in 1989 by Lady Wendy Levene, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Paviors.

HMS <i>Lancaster</i> (F229) 1992 Type 23 or Duke-class frigate of the Royal Navy

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HMS <i>Grafton</i> (F80) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Grafton is a Type 23 frigate formerly in service with the Royal Navy. She was the ninth vessel to bear the name, and is named after the Duke of Grafton. Ordered in January 1992, Grafton was laid down on 13 May 1993 by Yarrow Shipbuilders. The frigate was launched on 5 November 1994 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 29 May 1997 with the pennant number F80. In 2007 the ship was transferred to Chile as Almirante Lynch and, having undergone a significant upgrade from 2019 to 2020, remains in service with the Chilean Navy.

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HMS <i>Brazen</i> (F91) 1982 Type 22 or Broadsword-class frigate of the Royal Navy

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HMS<i> Marlborough</i> List of ships with the same or similar names

Six warships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Marlborough after the Duke of Marlborough:

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In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number. Historically, naval ships flew a flag that identified a flotilla or type of vessel. For example, the Royal Navy used a red burgee for torpedo boats and a pennant with an H for torpedo boat destroyers. Adding a number to the type-identifying flag uniquely identified each ship.

RFA <i>Wave Knight</i> (A389) 2003 Wave-class fast fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary

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<i>Condell</i>-class frigate

The Condell class was the name given to a class of two new build and upgraded type Leander-class frigates of the Chilean Navy, Almirante Condell and Almirante Lynch.

Several ships of the Chilean Navy have been named Almirante Condell after Admiral Carlos Condell (1846–1912), hero of the Battle of Punta Gruesa during the War of the Pacific:

In 1989 the Royal Navy was under the direction of the Navy Department in the UK Ministry of Defence. It had two main commands, CINCFLEET and Naval Home Command.

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References

  1. "UK Military Aircraft Losses".
  2. "Type 23 signs on for Chilean Navy" (PDF). Preview. Ministry of Defence. May 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2007.
  3. García, Nicolás (25 October 2021). "Asmar entrega a la Armada de Chile la última fragata Type 23 modernizada". infodefensa.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 November 2021.