The crew members of Montrose gave us a detailed tour by showing how the operations are done onboard their vessel while a team from Horizon was being given a tour onboard the Type 23 Frigate, HMS Montrose.
Montrose is the 5th Duke Class frigate and was ordered in July of 1988. She was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Glasgow and got commissioned 6 years later in June of 1994. She is 133m long and 16.1m wide, furthermore her air draft exceeds 28m and her maximum draught is 7.3m. Her Propulsion System consists of 4x 1,510 kW (2,020 shp) Paxman Valenta 12CM diesel generators,2x GEC electric motors delivering 2,980 kW (4,000 shp)and 2x Rolls-Royce Spey SM1C delivering 23,190 kW (31,100 shp) giving her the ability to sail at a speed of 28 knots.
She is a multipurpose frigate thus giving her the ability to partake in missions such as:
- Disaster relief and humanitarian aid
- Anti-piracy patrols
- Anti-air warfare
- Anti-ship warfare
- Anti-submarine warfare
She can conduct these missions with various armaments including:
- Anti-air missiles:
- 1 × 32-cell GWS 35 Vertical Launching System for:
- 32 × Sea Ceptor missiles (1–25+ km)
- Anti-ship missiles:
- 2 × quad Harpoon launchers (8 × missiles)
- Anti-submarine torpedoes:
- 2 × twin 12.75 in (324 mm) Sting Ray torpedo tubes
- Guns:
- 1 × BAE 4.5-inch Mk 8 naval gun
- 2 × 30 mm DS30M Mk2 guns, or, 2 × 30 mm DS30B guns
- 2 × Miniguns
- 4 × General-purpose machine gun
Moreover, the ship can accommodate either 1x Westland Wildcat HMA2 or 1x Westland Merlin HM2. In this case onboard the vessel had Westland Wildcat carrying the serial ZZ414 which had also visited Malta in the past, onboard HMS Diamond.
Sadly, this was the last time we got to see her in the Grand Harbour. Montrose visited Malta and few other Mediterranean ports on her way home back to Portsmouth, after a four year long deployment in the Gulf. She will be decommissioned in the beginning of 2023, becoming the second Duke Class ship to leave the Royal Navy after HMS Monmouth.
Lastly, Commander Claire Thompson thanked the Horizon team for visiting her ship who also did not hesitate to tell how much she liked Valletta.
The Horizon team would also like to thank the British High commission in Malta for their help to be able to visit HMS Montrose while in Valletta.
