Royal Navy frigate HMS Portland has carried out live firing with her 4.5 inch main gun during training off the South Coast of England.

The Type 23 frigate reported the gunnery serial on social media, posting: “Every day is a good day for a bit of naval gunnery. 4.5 engage!” The firing came at the end of what the ship described as a “great week at sea off the South Coast.”

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves here, for those scoffing at this article. This is a minor event, and a very routine one. Warships fire their guns in training all the time, and some readers may, as I said, scoff at reporting it at all. But I think it’s worth doing precisely because of that.

At a time when much of the coverage of the Royal Navy, including our own, focuses on hulls being retired, availability problems and gapped capabilities, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the fleet is still at sea, still conducting the unglamorous training serials that keep a warship ready to fight. A frigate putting rounds downrange off the South Coast is not a headline event, but it is really the bread and butter of a navy that intends to remain a fighting force, and that is worth reporting.

The 4.5 inch Mk 8 gun is capable of engaging surface targets and providing naval gunfire support to forces ashore. Keeping crews current on the weapon requires regular live practice that cannot be fully replicated in simulators, and gunnery serials of this kind exercise the gun crew, the operations room, damage control teams and the whole choreography of a ship closed up at action stations.

Portland herself is one of the Royal Navy’s specialist anti-submarine frigates, based at HMNB Devonport in Plymouth and equipped with the Sonar 2087 towed array. Commissioned in 2001 and taken through a life extension refit between 2018 and 2021, she has taken on greater significance as the Type 23 force shrinks, with HMS Richmond and HMS Iron Duke formally retired only this week. In December 2024 she became the second Royal Navy ship fitted with the Naval Strike Missile, the interim replacement for Harpoon, adding a modern anti-ship and land attack punch alongside her Sea Ceptor air defence missiles, torpedo tubes and embarked Wildcat or Merlin helicopter.

In May, the ship’s company paused to mark the presentation of Wider Service and General Service Medals to crew members for their service on operations, a reminder that the ship has been busy beyond the training areas. With the anti-submarine Type 23s carrying the load until the Type 26s arrive from the late 2020s, weeks like Portland’s, unremarkable as they may seem, are exactly what keeping a frigate force credible looks like.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
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30 COMMENTS

  4. No plans to reinstate the 4.5″ anti air capability? ….despite the arial drone threat that has emerged over past 10 years

  5. Hmmm … and then there were five: HMS Kent, HMS Portland, HMS St Albans, HMS Somerset and HMS Sutherland. If T-26 schedule slips further, technically feasible to restore bow mounted sonar of T-45 and jury rig some Captas variant? Possible to provide a tail for the Batch 2 OPVs? While necessity is often deemed a mother, occasionally it yields invention.

    • No, apart from anything else, T45 sounds like a bag of nails to any submarine – it’s a very noisy ship acoustically

        • Yep, and of course Venturer – although it’s not an ASW ship, it can cover taskings that would otherwise fall to a T23

          • In this ‘transition’ our N.Atlantic ASW role has been prioritised. GP frigate roles in Caribbean and the Falklands went to the OPVs a long times ago. Fleet ready escort did fall through the cracks to the B1 Rivers and the Cyprus T45 episode was embarrassing. That said, the impression of this layman is that the RN and MOD have played a weak hand well, in the face of significant Russian pressure.

    • Hi F/USAF, it really seems only a few (3 or 4?) short years ago that we had 13 FF and everyone felt that was a bare minimum!

      • GM,
        Yes, and situation will deteriorate further before improving. As each T-23 undergoes a mandatory six year seaworthiness inspection, it is deemed uneconomical to repair. Not an optimal scenario. Somewhat surprised HMG did not propose any interim measures in the DIP to ameliorate a predictable future crisis (e.g. purchase of additional P-8A, crash development of a more capable Batch 3 OPV/Corvette class, short term lease of used FFGs from any available source, etc.). Relying upon allies to provide the capability may prove to be a viable short-term measure, but is a significantly questionable longer-term strategy. 🤔🤞

        • Another Sqn of P8’s are desperately needed.

          Nimrod MRA1 – 45 aircraft

          Nimrod MRA4 – supposed to be 21 aircraft, cut to 9

          On a GOOD day there is just 1 P-8 out on patrol

      • 13 ÷ rule of 3 》4 or5 at sea. You just have to engage in mental gymnastics, where refit now = scrapped and working up now = new construction 😂

  6. Hopefully Portland’s target was one of the Russian frigates or destroyers riding shotgun for the convoys of sanctioned Russian tankers/tugboats etc currently running the Channel off HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth

    Aside from the Admiral Grigorovich, at least 2 other Russian naval warships (including the intelligence-gathering vessel Yuri Ivanov and support/repair ships) have consistently operated in or passed through UK waters over the last fortnight

            • NSM is a lightweight subsonic missile with a fairly short range – if you think a Frigate arned with those can pick a fight with a ship carrying heavyweight very high supersonic missiles – well yeah…..

              • It not lightweight, it would absolutely ruin a frigate the size of Admiral Grigorovich 😂

                It’s constantly under watch, the type 23 would be able to target the Russian frigate and get several missiles off via targeting data from other platforms. Doubt the Russians would even have time to respond.

  7. in the words of Sgt Wilson (Dad’s Army), are you sure that’s really wise sir?

    Too much danger of shaking another hull to bits…

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