Royal Navy's HMS Defender to begin sea trials

HMS Defender in Portsmouth Harbour. Photo: UK MoD

LONDON (BNS): The Royal Navy's newest Type 45 destroyer, HMS Defender, will undergo sea trials before being declared ready for operations in 2013, the UK MoD has said.

The destroyer sailed in to her new home at Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth on Wednesday.

HMS Defender is the fifth of six Type 45 warships built for the Royal Navy, and was launched at the BAE Systems' Govan yard in Glasgow in October 2009.

The 7,500-tonne destroyer is armed with the Sea Viper missile defence system. The Type 45s will provide the backbone of the UK's naval air defences for the next 30 years and beyond.

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