HMS Norfolk (D21)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Norfolk.

HMS Norfolk
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Norfolk
Ordered:	5 January 1965
Builder:	Swan Hunter
Laid down:	15 March 1966
Launched:	16 November 1967
Commissioned:	7 March 1970
Decommissioned:	1981
Fate:	Sold to Chile on 6 April 1982
Career (Chile)
Name:	Capitán Prat
Acquired:	April 1982
Decommissioned:	11 August 2006
General characteristics
Class and type:	County-class destroyer
Displacement:	5,450 tonnes 6,100 tonnes (full load)
Length:	522 ft (159 m)
Beam:	53 ft (16 m)
Draught:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combined steam and gas) turbines, 2 shafts
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	4,000 nautical miles (7,000 km) at 28 knots (52 km/h)
Capacity:	470
Armament:	4 × 4.5-inch (114 mm) guns (2 removed after refit) 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns 2 × Sea Slug missile launchers 8 × Sea Cat missile launchers (added after refit) 4 × Exocet missile launchers (added after refit) 6 × 12.75 inch torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried:	1 × Westland Wessex helicopter

The fifth HMS Norfolk (D21) was laid down on 15 March 1966 by Swan Hunter and launched by Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk in November 1967. She was commissioned in March 1970. Like her predecessor she was a County-class warship, though this time she was a destroyer, rather than a cruiser, and her most potent armament was not her guns, but her missiles.

In 1972 Norfolk began a refit to replace 'B' turret with four Exocet launchers. She was thus the first Royal Navy warship to be armed with the Exocet missile system. She also became the first warship to carry three independent missile systems (Exocet, Sea Cat and Sea Slug). Norfolk recommissioned in 1974. She had a displacement of 5,450 tons and was quite a large ship, considering she was classified as a destroyer. She undertook numerous deployments to the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and South Pacific Ocean.

In September 1976, one of the highlights of her relatively peaceful career came, when she flew the Queen's Colour in Sweden, when King Carl XVI Gustaf unveiled a plaque to commemorate the British Admiral James de Saumarez. She had an unwelcome milestone in 1979, when she became the first warship afloat to hold a Court Martial in over 10 years, during the ships visit to Fremantle, Australia. The visit itself was made to commemorate 150 years of the founding of Western Australia.

In September 1976, Norfolk took over the UK's commitment to Standing Naval Force Atlantic, but decommissioned in 1981 to become the Dartmouth Training Ship.

Norfolk was sold to Chile on 6 April 1982 and renamed Capitán Prat. In 1996 she was fitted with the Barak SAM, removing the Sea Cat launchers. In 2001 she was refitted to Helicopter Destroyer with a Cougar attack helicopter, and removal of the Sea Slug system.

On 24 February 2006 Capitan Prat was laid up and she decommissioned on 11 August 2006.In September 2008 she sailed to Mexico for scrap.

See also

• List of ship launches in 1967
• List of ship commissionings in 1970
• List of ship commissionings in 1982
• List of ship decommissionings in 1981
• List of ship decommissionings in 2006