Photo: Royal Navy
It’s always exciting to welcome a new warship and hear about its potential and promise for the future, but let’s not forget the ones that came before them and that are still the backbone of Navy operations.
“Lest we forget” (Ne Obliviscarus) is HMS Argyll’s motto. Indeed, we should never forget to honor those who have served before and the ships that made history. With a 30-year long career, the Royal Navy’s longest-serving Type 23 frigate is still one of the most powerful ships at sea, blending its extensive experience with the latest cutting-edge technology.
HMS Argyll’s crew recently celebrated the frigate’s milestone birthday, with a proper ceremony and even a cake. And Argyll does deserve all the honors – commissioned in the spring of 1991, it has now accumulated over 685,000 nautical miles, which is the equivalent of 32 trips around the world.
You might think that a warship that has been designed in the 80s couldn’t keep up with the latest generation, but Argyll is actually one of the most technologically capable frigates today, after having been upgraded a few years ago.
And it recently proved that, during NATO’s Formidable Shield exercise, where it successfully tracked supersonic ballistic targets and helped develop operational tactics for the powerful Sea Ceptor missile system. In fact, through 2018 and 2019, it was deployed as the first Royal Navy warship equipped with the Sea Ceptor.
Argyll was also the first Royal Navy ship to demonstrate the ability to control autonomous, unmanned Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats (RIBs), through its combat system, in 2019. Not to mention the fact that it’s also a hero ship that helped rescue 27 sailors from the burning MV Grande America, in the Bay of Biscay (a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean), a couple of years ago.
Two members of her crew were awarded a Queen’s Gallantry Medal and a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery, while HMS Argyll was named Hero Overseas Unit, in 2020.
After having been deployed to the Asia-Pacific, Arabian Gulf, the U.S., West Africa and the Caribbean, throughout its extended career, HMS Argyll will take a maintenance break next year, before taking on future challenges.
HMS Argyll’s crew recently celebrated the frigate’s milestone birthday, with a proper ceremony and even a cake. And Argyll does deserve all the honors – commissioned in the spring of 1991, it has now accumulated over 685,000 nautical miles, which is the equivalent of 32 trips around the world.
You might think that a warship that has been designed in the 80s couldn’t keep up with the latest generation, but Argyll is actually one of the most technologically capable frigates today, after having been upgraded a few years ago.
And it recently proved that, during NATO’s Formidable Shield exercise, where it successfully tracked supersonic ballistic targets and helped develop operational tactics for the powerful Sea Ceptor missile system. In fact, through 2018 and 2019, it was deployed as the first Royal Navy warship equipped with the Sea Ceptor.
Argyll was also the first Royal Navy ship to demonstrate the ability to control autonomous, unmanned Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats (RIBs), through its combat system, in 2019. Not to mention the fact that it’s also a hero ship that helped rescue 27 sailors from the burning MV Grande America, in the Bay of Biscay (a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean), a couple of years ago.
Two members of her crew were awarded a Queen’s Gallantry Medal and a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery, while HMS Argyll was named Hero Overseas Unit, in 2020.
After having been deployed to the Asia-Pacific, Arabian Gulf, the U.S., West Africa and the Caribbean, throughout its extended career, HMS Argyll will take a maintenance break next year, before taking on future challenges.
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