The Royal Navy’s newest warship, HMS Daring, sailed into Portsmouth Harbour yesterday. Credit: MoD.

The Royal Navy’s newest warship, HMS Daring, sailed into Portsmouth Harbour yesterday (28 January), described as the world’s most advanced destroyer.

As she berthed for the first time in her home port, hundreds of well-wishers gathered to celebrate, including family members of its crew.

The £1 billion, 7,350-tonne destroyer has a crew of 191, and is the first of the new Type 45 destroyers.

Six Type 45 destroyers will form the backbone of the Royal Navy’s Air Defence capability for the 21st Century, with twice the range of their predecessors, the Type 42 destroyer.

Vice Admiral Sir Trevor Soar KCB OBE, Chief of Materiel (Fleet), used the occasion to officially name the Type 45’s air defence missile system as “Sea Viper” – formerly known as the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS).

He said: “With its Sampson Radar the system is capable of detecting and tracking several hundred targets including the supersonic, sea skimming and high altitude targets out to 400 kilometres. It can then classify and decide how to best engage up to 10 of them simultaneously in order to ensure the highest possibility of a successful engagement.”

Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, said: “HMS Daring is one of the most advanced ships ever built and along with the five other Type 45s will be one of the essential pillars of the Royal Navy in the 21st Century. The newly named “Sea Viper”, a world-leading missile system will allow the ship to detect her prey, target it and issue a deadly strike.”

Designed primarily to provide air defence protecting forces against enemy aircraft and missiles, HMS Daring is extremely versatile and able to undertake a broad range of missions from combat to humanitarian assistance.

She can operate a number of helicopters, including the Chinook providing greater operational flexibility than other ships of her size. HMS Daring will be able to carry a significant number of extra personnel, such as troops or evacuated personnel, on board.

The destroyer will undertake an intensive sea trials programme for the rest of the year, and is expected to be formally accepted into Naval Service by late 2010.

Interesting facts

* HMS Daring is affiliated with Birmingham and Guernsey.
* Two and a quarter million man hours have been spent fitting out HMS Daring.
* The hull structure is made of 2800 tonnes of steel which is more than the weight of the Blackpool Tower. Approximately 40 tonnes of paint will have to be applied to cover an area of 100,000 square meters of steel.
* The Sea Viper air defence missile is the size of a public phone box, weighs almost as much as a small car and from launch accelerates to a speed twice that of Concorde in under 10 seconds.
* Her 152m length is equivalent to more than 16 double-decker buses and she is as high as an electricity pylon.
* Her onboard power plant can supply enough electricity to light a town of 80,000 people.
* Her fuel tanks have a volume equivalent to approximately half that of an Olympic swimming pool.
* She contains 220 beds, 26 sofa beds, 22 single beds and has her own hospital facilities complete with operating table. She is fitted with 1 bath, 44 showers, 54 toilets and 100 wash basins.
* She is fitted with enough carpet to cover nearly two 5 a-side football pitches. She has 404 phones (mainly internal) and is fitted with enough electrical cable to circle the M25 three times.