[24 × cell
Sea Ceptor silos to be fitted starting on HMS Defender from 2026 for:
24 × surface-to-air missiles that will replace the Aster 15 missiles to allow all 48× Sylver Vertical Launching Systems to be used for Aster 30.][18][19][20]
HMS Dauntless is the second ship of the
Type 45 or Daring-class
air-defencedestroyers built for the British
Royal Navy. She was launched at Govan in January 2007, was handed over to the Royal Navy on 3 December 2009 and was formally commissioned on 3 June 2010.
Construction
Dauntless's construction began at the
BAE Systems Naval Ships yard at
Govan in August 2004 on the
River Clyde. She was launched on 23 January 2007 at 3.25 pm by Lady Burnell-Nugent, wife of Admiral Sir
James Burnell-Nugent, the then-
Commander-in-Chief Fleet. Dauntless is the adopted warship of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Because her modules were put together outside at BAE Govan, it was possible to complete more of her structure than her sister ship, Daring, which was launched from the covered facility at Scotstoun the previous year.
Sea trials
Upon completing her fitting out stage, HMS Dauntless sailed from the Clyde for the first time on 14 November 2008 to conduct sea trials, testing power and propulsion, weapons and communications systems. Although not yet transferred to the Royal Navy, some of her future crew sailed with her.[33]Dauntless arrived at
HMNB Portsmouth for the first time on 2 December 2009, and was formally handed over to the
Ministry of Defence by her builders on 3 December 2009.[34][35] During her sea trials Dauntless made her inaugural visit to her affiliated city of
Newcastle upon Tyne in May 2010.
Operational history
Dauntless was commissioned on 3 June 2010 in the presence of her sponsor.[36] The MoD confirmed on 1 October 2010 that she had completed the first Sea Viper firing on a Hebridean firing range earlier in the week,[37] and the ship was accepted into service on 16 November the same year.[38]
In June 2011, Dauntless sailed across the
Atlantic Ocean to
Norfolk, Virginia, to take part in the FRUKUS war game exercises between
Russia,
France, the
United States and the United Kingdom. En route in the Atlantic she rendezvoused and conducted manoeuvres with the Russian destroyer
Admiral Chabanenko, which was also heading for the FRUKUS exercises, conducting cross helicopter exercises which saw Dauntless' two
Lynx helicopters land on the Admiral Chabanenko. The deployment was the first time that two Lynxs had been deployed aboard a Type 45 destroyer.[40][41]
In January 2012, it was announced that Dauntless would deploy to the South Atlantic to replace
HMS Montrose which was stationed around the
Falkland Islands. The deployment was condemned by the government of
Argentina, which claimed that the deployment represented a "militarization of the South Atlantic", despite the replacement representing only a modest increase in fighting capacity.[44][45][46]
In 2015, Dauntless re-sailed for the Middle East after a short delay, with a plan to take part in the centenary of the
Gallipoli Campaign.[48] She conducted anti-piracy patrols, as well as provide escort to U.S. Navy aircraft carrier
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) which is involved in
airstrikes against ISIL.[49] In November 2015, she participated with other NATO air defence ships in an "At Sea Demonstration", focusing on anti-ballistic missile warfare.[50]
In April 2016, The Independent stated that the vessel had been relegated to use as a training ship due to manpower and technical shortages, although this was disputed by the MOD at the time.[51] Her status as an engineering training ship pending entering refit was confirmed in June 2016.[52]
In 2019 Dauntless underwent a regeneration refit in Portsmouth before sailing to
Birkenhead in May 2020 [53] as the first Type 45 to have new generators fitted under the Power Improvement Project. She left the shipyard on 14 June 2022 upon completion of the refit, and put to sea for the first time in two years.[54]
In May 2023, the destroyer deployed to the Caribbean for six months, taking over guardship duties there from
HMS Medway which had temporarily deployed to the South Atlantic.[55] In September, the destroyer was involved in multiple operations that seized more than a tonne of cocaine from drug smugglers, worth over 140 million pounds.[56] In September the destroyer also visited the territories of
Anguilla,
Montserrat and the
British Virgin Islands in order to assist local authorities in preparing for the climax of the hurricane season.[57]
The destroyer entered maintenance in 2023/24 and is reported as likely to be the first ship in her class to be fit with the Naval Strike Missile (NSM).[58]
^Nicoll, Alexander (21 December 2000). "Vosper suffers blow over destroyer order". Financial Times. London. The MoD yesterday signed a £1.2bn contract with BAE Systems to oversee design and building of the first three destroyers...
^"For Queen and Country". Navy News. July 2012. p. 8. One hundred or so miles west of the largest city of Abidjan lies the fishing port of Sassandra, too small to accommodate 8,500-tonnes of Type 45.
^"HMS Duncan joins US Carrier on strike operations against ISIL". Navy News. 7 July 2015. Archived from
the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015. As well as supporting the international effort against the ISIL fundamentalists – the 8,500-tonne warship has also joined the wider security mission in the region.