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 Ocean was a Landing Platform Helicopter, formerly the UK's helicopter carrier and the fleet flagship of the Royal Navy. She was designed to support amphibious landing operations and to support the staff of Commander UK Amphibious Force and Commander UK Landing Force. She was constructed in the mid-1990s by Kvaerner Govan on the River Clyde and fitted out by VSEL at Barrow-in-Furness prior to trials and subsequent acceptance in service. Ocean was commissioned in September 1998 at her home port HMNB Devonport, Plymouth.
HMS Edinburgh was a Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. Edinburgh was built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead. She was launched on 14 April 1983 and commissioned on 17 December 1985. The largest of the Type 42 destroyers, Edinburgh was known as the "Fortress of the Sea". Edinburgh was the last of the Type 42 destroyer to serve in the Royal Navy and was decommissioned on 6 June 2013.
HMS Liverpool was a Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead and launched on 25 September 1980 by Lady Strathcona, wife of Euan Howard, the then Minister of State for Defence. Liverpool was the last Type 42 Batch 2 in service.
HMS Montrose was the eighth of the sixteen-ship Type 23 or Duke class of frigates, of the Royal Navy, named after the Duke of Montrose. She was laid down in November 1989 by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde, and was launched on 31 July 1992 by Edith Rifkind, wife of Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Defence. She was commissioned into service in June 1994.
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 Cornwall was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was the first Batch 3 to be built, and the last to decommissioned. Cornwall was based at HMNB Devonport in Devon, England, part of the Devonport Flotilla.
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.
HMS Monmouth was the sixth Duke-class Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was the seventh ship to bear the name and was launched by Lady Eaton in 1991, being commissioned two years later.
HMS Northumberland is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She is named after the Duke of Northumberland. She is the eighth RN ship to bear the name since the first 70-gun ship of the line in 1679, and the ninth in the class of Type 23 frigates. She is based at Devonport and is part of the Devonport Flotilla.
HMS Richmond is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 6 April 1993 by Lady Hill-Norton, wife of the late Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Hill-Norton, and was the last warship to be built by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders. She sailed from the builders on the River Tyne in November 1994. She is named for the Dukedom of Richmond.
HMS Kent is a Type 23 Duke-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and the twelfth ship to bear the name, although formally she is named after the dukedom rather than the county. Sponsored by Princess Alexandra, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy, Kent was launched on 28 May 1998 and commissioned on 8 June 2000 under the command of then Commander John Clink. She was the first ship to enter Royal Navy service in the 21st century and the first Royal Navy warship with a female Executive Officer, Lt Cdr Vanessa Jane Spiller, appointed in April 2001.
HMS St Albans is a Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She is the sixth ship to bear the name and is the sixteenth and final ship in the Duke class of frigates. She is based in Devonport, Plymouth.
Almirante Williams is a Type 22 frigate in service with the Chilean Navy. It entered service with the British Royal Navy in 1988 with the name HMS Sheffield, and served with the Royal Navy until 2002. Initially it was meant to be called Bruiser, but was named Sheffield in honour of the previous Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. In 2003, the vessel was acquired by the Chilean Navy and renamed Almirante Williams.
HMS Birmingham was a Type 42 destroyer laid down by Cammell Laird and Company, Limited, at Birkenhead on 28 March 1972, launched on 30 July 1973 by Lady Empson, wife of Sir Derek Empson and commissioned on 3 December 1976. She was named for the city of Birmingham, England.
HMS Antrim was a County-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy launched on 19 October 1967. In the Falklands War, she was the flagship for the recovery of South Georgia, participating in the first ever anti-submarine operation successfully conducted exclusively by helicopters. In 1984, she was commissioned into the Chilean Navy, and renamed Almirante Cochrane.
HMS Minerva (F45) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship commissioned in 1966 and took part in the Beira Patrol and Second Cod War during the 1970s and the Falklands War in 1982. Charles, Prince of Wales served aboard the ship in the 1970s. Between these major engagements, the frigate patrolled British territorial waters and took part in NATO and British military exercises. Minerva was decommissioned in 1992 and sold for scrap.
HMS Echo was the first of two multi-role hydrographic survey ships commissioned by the Royal Navy. With her sister ship, HMS Enterprise, they formed the Echo class of survey vessels. She was built by Appledore Shipbuilders in Devon in 2002 and was the ninth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name. She was retired from service in 2022.
HMS Enterprise, the tenth ship to bear this name, was a multi-role survey vessel - hydrographic oceanographic (SVHO) of the Royal Navy along with HMS Echo that made up the Echo class of survey vessels.
PNS Tariq (DDG-181) was the lead ship of the Tariq-class destroyers in the Surface Command of the Pakistan Navy that served in the military service from 1993 until 2023. Prior to being commissioned in the Pakistan Navy, she served in the Royal Navy, as general purpose frigate HMS Ambuscade.
United Kingdom
Chile
