Royal Navy's latest warship launched

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The Royal Navy's newest warship, destroyer HMS Dauntless, was launched on the Clyde River, Scotland, yesterday, 23 January 2007.

HMS Dauntless, the second of the new Type 45 class destroyers
[Picture: Andrew Linnett]

HMS Dauntless is the second of the new Type 45 class of anti-air warfare destroyers, one of the most powerful destroyers ever built for the Royal Navy. She was launched by Lady Burnell-Nugent, wife of the Royal Navy's Commander-In-Chief Fleet.

The first ship of the class, Daring, is expected to start her sea trials later this year and will go into service in 2009. Dauntless is expected to go into service early next decade.

These ships can sail over 600 miles (about 1,000 km) in one day and will operate around the globe supporting global offensive and peacekeeping operations as well as tackling drug smuggling and delivering humanitarian aid.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said:

"We are currently investing in the biggest naval shipbuilding programme in decades, and the launch of HMS Dauntless shows the world class ships we are proud to be delivering for the Royal Navy. This is an important milestone in the multi-billion pound Type 45 destroyer programme, a project which will give the Royal Navy a class of one of the most advanced destroyers anywhere in the world.

"Dauntless is a world class piece of engineering, designed and built in Britain. The programme currently provides 3,000 shipbuilding jobs on the Clyde, 600 shipbuilding jobs in Portsmouth and many more jobs at sub-contractors around the country. The workforce involved in building the ship should be proud of their achievement."

Commander Giuian Hill, Senior Naval Officer, HMS Dauntless
[Picture: Andrew Linnett]

Dauntless is fitted with air defence missiles approximately the size of ten beer barrels stacked on end and weighing almost as much as a small car. From launch they can accelerate to a speed twice that of Concorde in under ten seconds.

The air defence system is so potent that it is able to track and destroy salvos of advanced supersonic missiles and can hit a target the size of a cricket ball travelling three times the speed of sound.

The hull structure of Dauntless is made of 2,800 tonnes of steel which is more than the weight of Blackpool Tower and approximately 40 tonnes of paint cover an area of 100,000 square metres.

Her 152 metre length is equivalent to more than 16 double decker buses lined up end-to-end and she is as high as an electricity pylon.

Her onboard power plant can supply enough electricity to light a town of 80,000 people and her fuel tanks have a volume equivalent to approximately half that of an Olympic swimming pool.

For the crew, life has the added comforts of i-pod charging points, computer access, five-channel recreational audio, larger berths and onboard hospital facilities.

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