HMS Argyll: Navy's Oldest Active Frigate Turns 30

HMS Argyll is celebrating 30 years of service with the Royal Navy surface fleet.

Marking the occasion off the Scottish Isle of Arran in the middle of Exercise Formidable Shield, the crew's youngest member cut a cake in recognition of three busy decades.

The oldest of the 13 Type 23 frigates still in service with the Royal Navy, HMS Argyll was commissioned in 1991 and has seen a wide range of deployments.

The ship was sent to Sierra Leone during the country's civil war in 2000 and the Gulf in 2005.

Recent years have seen periods of very high readiness tasking, complex capability upgrades, operational sea training and a seven-month operational deployment to the Middle East with the backdrop of a global pandemic.

HMS Argyll has been part of Operation KIPION, which aims to promote stability and safe passage for trade mariners in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

The frigate possesses an anti-submarine capability which will see some Duke-Class vessels chosen to join HMS Queen Elizabeth on future UK Carrier Strike deployments.

Originally, Type 23s were designed to combat Soviet submarines – but have since proved to be versatile frontline ships suitable for any mission.

In March 2019, returning to Plymouth after a nine-month deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, HMS Argyll responded to a mayday from an 28,000-tonne Italian merchant ship off the coast of France.

Sailors spent eight hours saving every person on board the cargo ship, MV Grande America, after its containers and cars caught fire in the Bay of Biscay.

HMS Argyll then operated in UK waters, supporting defence engagement, while also commemorating the liberation of Antwerp in 1944 with a visit to the Belgian city and heading to the Red Sea in 2020.

Cover image: HMS Argyll in 2020 (Picture: Royal Navy).