MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands War frigate to be turned into a museum

HMS Ambuscade was decommissioned and sold to Pakistan where it was recommissioned as PNS Tariq and remained in active service

The Royal Navy's HMS Ambuscade is to be preserved as a shipbuilding museum in Glasgow following her decommissioning by the Pakistan Navy, it was announced this week.

A Type-21 Frigate, the Ambuscade was built at Yarrows Shipbuilders in Scotstoun and launched in 1973 before entering service with the Royal Navy two years later.

During the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, the Ambuscade has been credited with saving the Task Force flagship, HMS Hermes, from an Exocet attack while her sister ships HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope were sunk by Argentine forces.

In 1993, HMS Ambuscade was decommissioned and sold to Pakistan where it was recommissioned as PNS Tariq and remained in active service. The museum will tell visitors the story of the ship’s career, while also paying tribute to all veterans that served on the vessel.

A letter from the Royal Navy supporting the project read: “This letter confirms that the National Museum of the Royal Navy has had conversations with David O’Neill, around the proposal to evaluate the possibility of returning to the River Clyde, a former Royal Navy Type 21 Frigate, built on the River Clyde, currently in service with the Navy of Pakistan.

“Mr. O’Neill has outlined a vision in which heritage and cultures from these two communities can come together to celebrate the heritage of the Clyde in building warships for the Royal Navy and as such, we are helping to pull contacts together from former senior service personnel and existing contacts to work with the MoD, the British High Commission in Islamabad, the Pakistan Navy and other supporters.

“We seek to play an active part to make this possible and ask that Peel Ports offer their cooperation and consideration in assisting this proposal with the logistical challenges ahead.”

(Source: STV News)