HMS HOPELESS
£1bn warship has been stuck in port for FOUR YEARS
ONE of the Royal Navy’s £1billion warships has spent four years stuck in port because of engine problems and a shortage of sailors, it emerged yesterday.
HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, has been sitting in Portsmouth harbour since 2016 – when she spent a total of six days at sea.
The 8,000-ton ship, which has been used as a training vessel, will now undergo a major engine refit and will not be deployed for another year.
Ministry of Defence (MoD) figures also revealed the six Type 45 destroyers were at sea for a combined total of just 649 days last year.
Lord West, a former head of the Navy, said: ‘We should have pushed ahead as soon as we knew what the problem was and it is dreadful it has taken so long. We need to get them fixed and out there operating. We need ships in case we have a war.’
MoD figures uncovered by the Sunday Mirror revealed the fleet has spent most of its time sitting in the harbour instead of being engaged in operations.
The destroyer, whose sophisticated air-defence system can track up to 1,000 targets simultaneously, will be back in action in 2021, officials said.
Its sister ship, HMS Daring, has also spent the past two years tied up in dock and HMS Diamond managed only 15 days at sea in 2019.
HMS Defender spent 2017 in port but has since been out on operations, as have HMS Dragon and HMS Duncan.
Experts say some of the difficulty with getting the vessels out to sea is caused by a lack of crew members, meaning they have occasionally been used as training ships.
Navy chiefs knew in 2016 that there was a problem with the six
Type 45 destroyers but it has taken years to solve the issue.
The ships were breaking down in the Persian Gulf because they were not designed for the heat.
Contractors claimed at the time that the MoD did not tell them the Type 45 destroyers would be spending a long time operating in warm waters.
A Navy spokesman said: ‘Type 45 destroyers are held at various levels of readiness in accordance with defence requirements.
‘They rotate through planned operating cycles involving maintenance, training, deployment, leave and upgrades including the Power Improvement Project [to fix the engines], which is now underway.’
A Royal Navy frigate has shadowed the Russian destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov through the English Channel.
Commander Will Paston, of Portsmouth- based HMS Westminster, said the Russian ship ‘conducted itself in a safe and professional manner’.