HMS Gloucester (D96)

HMS Gloucester
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Gloucester
BuilderVosper Thornycroft
Laid down29 October 1979
Launched2 November 1982
Sponsored byThe Duchess of Gloucester
Commissioned11 September 1985
Decommissioned30 June 2011
HomeportHMNB Portsmouth
Identification
MottoProrsum ("Onwards")
Nickname(s)"The Fighting G"
FateSold for scrap
Badge
  • On a Field Blue a Trident White enfiled by a horseshoe gold
General characteristics
Class & typeType 42 destroyer
Displacement5,200 tonnes
Length141 m (463 ft)
Beam15.2 m (50 ft)
Propulsion
  • COGOG (Combination of Gas or Gas) turbines, 2 shafts
  • 2 turbines producing 36 MW (48,000 hp)
Speed30 knots (56 km/h)
Complement287
Armament
Aircraft carried
  • 1 x Lynx HMA8 armed with
    • 4 × anti ship missiles
    • 2 × anti submarine torpedoes

HMS Gloucester was a Batch 3 Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy, built by Vosper Thorneycroft at Woolston, Southampton and launched on 2 November 1982 by The Duchess of Gloucester. Gloucester was one of the modified last four of the class to be built, having a lengthened hull design giving better seakeeping qualities, greater endurance and an external 'strake' to counter longitudinal cracking, seen on earlier ships of the type.