HMS Brave (F94)
{{short description|1986 Type 22 or Broadsword-class frigate of the Royal Navy}}
{{Other ships|HMS Brave}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2014}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= HMS Brave underway off Portland, 18 April 1986 (IWM) }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=Image:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name=HMS Brave |Ship operator=Royal Navy |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Yarrow Shipbuilders |Ship yard number= |Ship laid down= 24 May 1982 |Ship launched= 19 November 1983 |Ship sponsor=Lady Bryson, wife of Admiral Sir Lindsay Bryson KCB, the Controller of the Navy |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=4 July 1986 in Portsmouth, Hampshire |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=23 March 1999 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto=*{{langx|la|Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat}} |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship identification=Pennant number: F94 |Ship fate=Sunk as a target vessel by HMS Sceptre and HMS Argyll |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Type 22 frigate |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement=5,300 tonnes |Ship length=148.1 m (486 ft 9 in) |Ship beam=14.8 m (48 ft 6 in) |Ship height= |Ship draught=6.4 m (21 ft) |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion= 2 × Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A Gas Turbines; 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C Gas Turbines |Ship speed=*{{convert|18|kn}} (cruise)
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=250 (19 officers, 73 senior ratings, 173 junior ratings) |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship troops= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*GWS25 Mod 3 Seawolf SAM launcher
|Ship armour= |Ship aircraft=Lynx HAS3 Mk.8 helicopter |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Brave was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland and launched on 19 November 1983. Brave was decommissioned on 23 March 1999 and was expended as a target in August 2004 by the submarine {{HMS|Sceptre|S104|2}} and frigate {{HMS|Argyll|F231|2}}.{{cite web |title=Brave Frigate |url=https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?210374 |website=wrecksite.eu |accessdate=4 January 2020}}
First commission and trials
Brave cost some £250m to build and spent most of her first commission (1985–1987) as a trials ship. She achieved various firsts in her weapons and communications fit. Thus, from 1985–1987, Brave had a number of civilian military contractors' personnel embarked and Commander Coyote, the Seawolf trials mascot, became a familiar figure on board. She had a reputation as a "happy ship". It was not until the autumn of 1987 that she undertook Basic Operational Sea Training at Portland and joined the fleet as a fully worked-up unit and she became leader of the 9th Frigate Squadron.Royal Navy Senior Appointments, Colin Mackie
Programme
Her programme from 1986 to 1987 included visits to Lowestoft, Gibraltar, Funchal, Madeira, Porto, London – alongside HMS Belfast in December 1986, Newcastle upon Tyne, Alicante and Torquay. In 1989 the ship was deployed to SE Asia and participated in exercises in the Gulf of Thailand with the navies of Australia (HMAS Darwin FFG04), Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. In January 1991 she was deployed to active service in the Gulf war. Whilst there she acted as the flagship for the Senior Naval Officer Middle East (SNOMI) commander of the sea-based task force. Her duties included providing anti-missile defense for US aircraft carriers and battleships, sonar tasks and mine watching. On a couple of occasions she came close to mines which had been dispatched by the Iraq military. Her main task during normal service was sonar patrols and between 1990 and 1992 carried out many successful patrols of the waters around the UK.
Affiliations
She was at first affiliated to Waveney District and the port of Lowestoft, Suffolk; this followed from the last ship of the name's Second World War association with the Suffolk town of Beccles. Other associations included the Royal Irish Rangers, the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, the Algerines Association, and Sea Cadet and Combined Cadet Force units. She had also forged a liaison with the Mohawk Indians in Canada. TS Mohawk. Her final affiliation was with the town of Dover in 1996.
References
Publications
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
{{Type 22 frigate}}
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