First time back to sea this year for HMS Kent


According to a tweet published by Navy Lookout on March 9, 2021, Type 23 Duke class frigate HMS Kent back to sea for a spell following three months of maintenance and upgrades.
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Russian Vyborg Shipyard laid the Purga ice class coastguard ship of project 23550 925 001 Type 23 Duke class frigate HMS Kent (Picture source: Twitter)


The British Navy HMS kent is one of the newest of the Type 23 Duke class frigates in service with the British Navy. It was launched on 28 May 1998 and commissioned on 8 June 2000. She was the first ship to enter the Royal British Navy service in the 21st Century.

The Type 23 frigate is armed with eight Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles in two four-cell launchers and vertical-launch Seawolf (GWS 26 Mod 1 VLS). The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile, developed and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). Sea Wolf is a naval guided missile system designed and built by BAC, later to become British Aerospace (BAe) Dynamics (now MBDA).

The Type 23 is also fitted with 324mm torpedo tubes carrying BAE Systems Stingray lightweight torpedoes. Stingray has depth 750 m and a range of 11 km. The ship has also one BAE 4.5 inch Mk 8 naval gun, two 30 mm DS30M Mk2 guns, or, 2 × 30 mm DS30B guns, two Miniguns, and four General-purpose machine guns.

The Type 23 frigate is powered by a diesel-electric and gas (CODLAG) system, which consists of two Rolls Royce Spey SM1A 34,000 hp gas turbines and two Alstom 1.5 MW 4,400 hp electric motors. There are also four Alstom 12 RP2000CZ 1.3MW 7,000 hp auxiliary diesel. Using the diesel-electric motors, the economical speed is 15 kt and the range is 7,800 miles. Its maximum speed is 28 kt.