HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 Daring-class destroyer, has departed from Portsmouth to commence a series of sea trials ahead of its involvement in the upcoming Exercise Strike Warrior.

The destroyer left port at approximately 8:30 am, passing by HMS Queen Elizabeth before heading out into open waters, as families gathered to wave off the crew.

Dauntless smoothly slipped into the sea amidst breezy conditions along the south coast.

These sea trials are a significant step in preparing the vessel for its role in Exercise Strike Warrior. This deployment follows a previous period of maintenance and upgrades, including improvements under the Power Improvement Project.

Dauntless is now set to put its systems and crew through rigorous testing over the coming days.

The departure of HMS Dauntless marks the ship’s return to active duty following recent taskings in the Caribbean, where it was engaged in counter-narcotics operations and supported local authorities in hurricane preparations.

The destroyer seized over a tonne of cocaine from smugglers, with a street value exceeding £140 million, demonstrating its versatile operational capabilities.

HMS Dauntless – Key Specifications and Recent Taskings:

  • Displacement: 8,000 to 8,500 tonnes
  • Length: 152.4 metres
  • Armament: PAAMS air-defence system, Aster 30 missiles, Naval Strike Missiles (from 2024), 4.5-inch Mark 8 naval gun, Phalanx CIWS
  • Aircraft: Capable of carrying one Lynx Wildcat or Westland Merlin, armed with anti-ship missiles or anti-submarine torpedoes
  • Speed: In excess of 30 knots

Construction of Dauntless began at BAE Systems’ Govan yard in August 2004, and the vessel was launched in January 2007. After a major refit under the Power Improvement Project, Dauntless returned to sea in 2022. Most recently, it was deployed in the Caribbean for six months in 2023, where it carried out drug interdiction operations and assisted in hurricane preparedness.

Having recently undergone maintenance, Dauntless is also set to become the first ship in its class to be equipped with the Naval Strike Missile.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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29 COMMENTS

  3. NSM, present tense or future tense? Under armament bullet point, reference to Aster 15 missiles deleted; purposeful omission? If Dauntless is selected to participate in CSG-25, will hull sonar be reactivated? 🤔

        • It’s a pity they couldn’t start sooner with this and dovetailing with the pip upgrade program. Maybe it is the earliest. It just seems ages. And with adding NSM as Jim asks.

          • Type 45 availability is a complicated juggling act at the best of times – hopefully 3 will be ready for operations at the start of 2025.

          • Couldn’t of been done sooner, because the decision was not made to install CAMM, and no contracts signed for equipment and missiles to be manufactured.

      • Daring class refits from 2026. The DDG serving as the prototype is being modded currently. Daring, Dauntless and Dragon have all undergone recent refit w/ out incorporating CAMM. Perhaps Defender or Diamond is the lead ship for CAMM insertion? 🤔😳 Would presume this process could/would be accelerated upon commencement of hostilities.

          • I think they are missing a trick by not installing MK41 VLS with quad packed Sea Ceptor. 8 VLS with CAMMS would give 32 missiles instead of 24. That would leave 8 VSL for ASMs….

          • If I was taking a guess the Mk41 space is being left so that can take the A70 length cells potentially for BMD?

            That is a pure guess but there will be a good reason for this given Mk41 is going into T26 & 31

            The idea of firing $11m or $30 Standard Missiles is not going to happen

          • Adding a 16 cell Mk41 rather than the 24 ‘mushroom farm’ cells for 24 extra CAMM/CAMM-ER and 10 long range SAMs could be interesting. The Type 45 doesn’t need huge offensive capability, I’d rather see it further optimised for AAW, with Type 26 and Type 31 using their Mk41 to pick up the slack.

            Give it SM-6 or invest in Aquila, or even Glide Phase Interceptor with Japan to fill those cells.

          • No missing of trick, of filling very expensive Mk. 41 cells, with cheap CAMM! Use Mk. 41 for expensive missiles, like sm-6 etc!

      • In the absence of MK41s is there room to also add some side silos of CAMM here to increase their load out to maybe 48 for 96 shots all up?

  4. Hope all goes well for her and crew. Anybody know what’s going on with HMS Daring is she ever going to be on the ocean waves again ?

    • My best guess is that she was pretty much stripped to keep her sisters going.

      Putting her back together fully is going to be a long and expensive job – has to be done irrespective of costs.

      I just hope her hull hasn’t been allowed to deteriorate for penny pinching reasons.

  7. By the early 2030’s the T45’s should be well equipped with PIP done, 72 Aster/CAMM and 8 NSM.

    Shame that they will have been in service 20+ years by then and even with lots of time laid up probably only in service another decade or so.

    Should have had Harpoon, some Mk.41 and a modern main gun from the start.

      • I wouldn’t say the Type 45s had Harpoon from the start. HMS Daring was the first of the Type 45s to be commissioned in Jul-2009. Only 4 of the Type 45s ever received Harpoon at any one time as they were cross-decked from the 4 retiring Type 22 Batch 3s. HMS Cornwall was the last of these to be decommissioned in Jun-2011. HMS Duncan was the first Type 45 to receive Harpoon and she wasn’t commissioned until Sep-2013 and first deployed with Harpoon in Mar-2015.

        So, almost 6yrs from first of class commissioned to first of class deployed with Harpoon.

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