According to information published by Plymouth Herald on April 18, 2022, the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigate HMS Iron Duke is back in action after a major refit at the Devonport Naval Base.
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Type 23 (Duke-class) frigate HMS Iron Duke (Picture source: UK Ministry of Defense)
The Type 23 frigate or Duke class is a class of frigates built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. They were designed for anti-submarine warfare, but have been used for a range of uses.
The armament of the Type 23 frigate includes Harpoon anti-ship missile capable of destroying enemy ships far beyond the horizon. Fitted to all Type 23 Frigates the Harpoon is a sophisticated anti-ship missile capable of striking targets more than 80 miles away.
The front deck of Type 23 is fitted with a BAE 4.5 inch Mk 8 naval gun. The gun can fire up to two dozen high explosive shells, per minute, weighing more than 40 kg (80lbs) at targets more than a dozen miles away - and nearly 18 miles if special extended-range shells are used.
The main purpose of the gun is Naval Gunfire Support – artillery bombardment of shore targets. In this role, the gun is capable of firing the equivalent of a six-gun shore battery.
The Type 23 is also armed with 32-cell Sea Wolf GWS.26 VLS (vertical launching system) canisters. Seawolf is the shield of Britain's frigate fleet against air attack. In service for more than 30 years, it has proven itself in battle and remains a potent weapon to this day. Seawolf is intended to defend an individual ship rather than a task group.
It is fired from a vertical silo and guided onto its target by a tracking system on the ship and can track and destroy a target the size of a cricket ball traveling at three times the speed of sound.
For close protection, Type 23 is armed with small-caliber weapons such as SA80, General Purpose Machine Gun and 9mm guns for use against both surface and airborne targets. Unlike the majority of the ship's weapons systems, these guns are not radar and computer-controlled, but aimed and fired by the upper deck gun crews. The weapons range in caliber and complexity.
