Two British Type 23 frigates for scrap… Are we catching up?

The British Ministry of Defense issued an announcement about the sale of 4 of its Scrap warships, including two Type 23 frigates (now). HMS Montrose and HMS Monmouth.

The Montrose was launched in 1992 and entered service in 1994, and was retired in April of this year, after 30 years of service. In fact, in her final year of operation, in 2022, she spent more than 200 days at sea! As for Monmouth, it was launched in 1991 and entered service in 1993, while it was scheduled to be upgraded from 2019 but it was finally decided to retire, which happened in 2021 (the first ship of the class to retire). The two ships have been stripped of vital materials and weapons that will be reused.

British Type 23 frigates: some towed, others being equipped

The deadline for proposals from Scrapers is October 23 this year. Just to joke around a bit (bitterly), we were able to do a fundraiser to get the two boats, which might even come in handy for us!

FLIGHT once wrote about the opportunity provided by a planned retreat Five Type 23 aircraft, which could serve as a serious “interim solution” for our Navy, in conjunction with the British proposal for new Arrowhead 140 frigates. The ‘Dukes’ as the class is called are well built, 4,900 tons, fully armed and have decent electronics while maintaining British standards. Now the British withdrawal program has changed – after the start of the war in Ukraine – and most Type 23 tanks will continue in service for several years, upgraded and with new weapons, such as anti-ship missiles, NSM.

EXCLUSIVE: HMS Argyll, Lancaster, Iron Duke, Montrose and possibly Monmouth are available for PN! We’re basically talking about replacing all of our big ships!

Among the other two frigates that submitted offers to be canceled by the British Navy, one of them is the frigate HMS Bristol, A 6,400-ton special launch ship from 1969, well armed for its time with Sea Dart anti-aircraft missiles, the first ship to adopt them! Unique in its class, it also features the Ikara anti-submarine missile/torpedo. Although she initially suffered trials and failures, She saw combat action in the Falkland Islands, where she was also the flagship of the British fleet for a time. Since the early 1990s, she was converted into a Navy port training ship, until her retirement in 2020.

Finally, the solution is also a minesweeper HMS Walneyof the Sandown class retiring in 2010. We’d love to… shop this one too, but our readers will likely follow along.