It was confirmed yesterday at a farewell Parade in her affiliated town of Richmond in Yorkshire, that the frigate is to be retired following 31-years of service. HMS Richmond was the last warship built by the great Swan Hunter shipyard on the Tyne and commissioned in 1995, Navy Lookout reports.
The penultimate ships built by the yard were HMS Westminster and HMS Northumberland (commissioned 1994), both already withdrawn due to their poor material state. Having sailed on 2 lengthy global deployments as well as serving in the Red Sea since her £56M LIFEX refit was completed in March 2020, it had become increasingly obvious that Richmond was unlikely to serve for much longer.
Despite her age, the RN has continued to invest in HMS Richmond right up to the end of her life. She was the first of four frigates to receive new engines in the form of the Power Generation Machinery Upgrade (PGMU). At the time, it was optimistically expected that this and the life extension work would see the ship serve until the early 2030s. The PGMU turned out to be far more complex to implement than expected, but proved to be a success in service. However, the frigates’ hulls, originally designed to last about 18 years, have become unrepairable after the rigours of 30 years of operations.
The full report is here.
