MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Major £35 million upgrade for frigate HMS Sutherland

Frigate HMS Sutherland (RN)

British Defence Minister Baroness Taylor announced earlier this month a £35m (70 million US dollars) major upgrade to Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Sutherland.

New equipment valued at £18m will be installed as part of a general overhaul of the ship under a £17m contract with Babcock Marine at their Rosyth dockyard in Scotland. "HMS Sutherland is the first of our ships to get this new equipment making her the most powerful frigate in the fleet. With an improved air defense missile system, a new long-range main gun, and our latest and most sophisticated submarine-hunting sonar, she will be a force to be reckoned with, capable of dealing with current and future threats", said Baroness Taylor, Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support. HMS Sutherland will be one of the first ships in the surface fleet to benefit from the £300m upgrade of the Sea Wolf Missile defense system by BAE Systems Insyte with MBDA as the prime contractor, greatly enhancing her anti-aircraft capabilities. The frigate's new submarine-hunting capacity will come as part of a £166m sonar project run by Thales UK: Sonar Type 2087 is an active low-frequency sonar in which a towed float is trailed from the frigate's quarterdeck, providing the 'ping' sound; a much used feature of many submarine-hunting films. When the sound wave hits a submarine, the return 'echo' is picked up by a towed array, also trailed from the quarterdeck on a cable up to 2km long. The results are then fed back to the ship sonar operators'. HMS Sutherland will also have her stern reshaped to cut fuel use. The present HMS Sutherland, built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited on the Clyde, was launched on 9 March 1996 by Lady Christina Walmsley, wife of Sir Robert Walmsley. She was commissioned on 4 July 1997, and after a period of sea trials and training, deployed to the Falkland Islands for 6 months over the winter of 1998/9. She deployed in May 2000 as part of a global task force - NTG2000; the first time the UK has sent a group of ships to go round the world since 1986. The Type 23 frigates have a displacement of 4.900 tons; 133 meters long and 16 meters beam. They are armed with 2 x Quad Harpoon Missile launchers Vertical Launch Sea Wolf anti-missile system 4.5in (114mm) MK 8 gun 2 x 30mm Close range guns 2 x Magazine launched anti submarine torpedo tubes NATO Seagnat and DLF3 Decoy Launchers. They are also equipped with Type 1007 navigation radar Type 996 air/surface surveillance radar 2 x Type 911 Sea Wolf tracking radars UAT Electronic Surveillance System Type 2050 active sonar. They can carry two MK8 Lynx helicopters and additional weapons include Sea Skua anti-ship missiles; Stingray anti submarine torpedoes; Mk 11 depth charges. Propulsion is supplied by 2 combined diesel and gas turbines: Rolls Royce Spey gas boost and 4 x GEC-Alsthom Paxman Valenta diesel engines.