HMS Norfolk (F230)
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| Missing image HMS_Norfolk_(F230).jpg Image:HMS_Norfolk_(F230).jpg | |
| Career | 
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|---|---|
| Ordered: | 29 October 1984 |
| Laid down: | 14 December 1985 |
| Launched: | 10 July 1987 |
| Commissioned: | 1 June 1990 |
| Decommissioned: | 25 November 2004 |
| Fate: | Awaiting Disposal |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4,900 tonnes |
| Length: | 133 m (463 ft) |
| Beam: | 16.1 m (52.9 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.3 m |
| Propulsion: | CODLAG (Combined Diesel and Gas): 2 Rolls Royce spey boost turbines 4 GEC Paxman-Valenta diesel engines 2 GEC electric motors |
| Speed: | 28 knots, 15 knots on diesel-electric |
| Range: | 7,800 miles at 15 knots |
| Complement: | 185 |
| Armament: | Tow quad Harpoon launchers Vertical launch system Sea Wolf missiles 4.5 inch (110 mm) Mk 8 gun Two 30 mm guns Two magazine launched anti-submarine torpedo tubes NATO Seagnat and DFL3 decoy launchers |
| Aircraft: | Lynx HMA8 |
| Motto: | |
The sixth and current HMS Norfolk (F230) was laid down in 1985 by Yarrow Shipbuilders. She was launched on the Clyde by HRH the late Princess Margaret, the Countess of Snowdon in July 1987. She was commissioned in November 1989. She was the first of the Type 23 or Duke-class frigates. The ship is a heavily armed, sleek and modern craft, highly automated with computer systems that significantly decrease the size of the crew. Norfolk has a crew of 185 compared to the 287 required for the Type 42 destroyer.
In 1994, Norfolk became the first Royal Navy warship to visit South Africa in over 20 years, a visit designed to show that Britain was ready to welcome her back into the fold after so many years of isolation because of apartheid. Since then, she has conducted many operations, including a deployment to Sierra Leone in 2000, as part of a Royal Navy task force ordered to assist in the restoration of peace and stability to the then war-torn West African nation. She has also served in the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, as well as being involved in Standing Naval Force Atlantic. Other duties sometimes include being a guardship for the British South Atlantic Territories, as well as the Caribbean.
Norfolk was also the first Royal Navy warship to be re-armed with the new 4.5 inch (110 mm) Mod 1 gun system. In July 2004, it was announced that Norfolk would be one of three Type 23 frigates decommissioned by the end of 2006. Norfolk was paid off in November 2004.
See HMS Norfolk for other ships of the name.
| Type 23 frigate |
| Norfolk | Argyll | Lancaster | Marlborough | Iron Duke | Monmouth | Montrose | Westminster | Northumberland | Richmond | Somerset | Grafton | Sutherland | Kent | Portland | St Albans |
| List of frigates of the Royal Navy |