The Royal Navy frigate HMS Sutherland has successfully fired her main gun during capability trials at sea, a key step in the warship’s return to front-line service, the Royal Navy has said.

The Type 23 frigate, known by her ship’s company as the Fighting Clan, said she had spent the last two weeks busy at sea, continuing essential capability trials for operations with the successful firing of her 4.5-inch Mk8 gun, alongside her ceremonial saluting guns.

The 4.5-inch Mk8 is the principal gun carried by the Type 23 class, a single-barrel naval gun used against surface, shore and, to a degree, air targets, and proving it can be fired safely and accurately is one of the milestones a ship must pass on her way back to operational readiness. The trials form part of a wider regeneration programme that has seen Sutherland working steadily back towards the front line.

That programme has been under way for some weeks now, with the frigate having earlier completed final trials of her Magazine Torpedo Launching System after a port visit to Lisbon, where she also hosted the Deputy Commander of Striking Force NATO, Rear Admiral Wood, along with British and NATO defence attachés, before returning to sea to press on with regeneration trials.

HMS Sutherland is one of the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates, a class displacing around 4,900 tonnes and optimised for anti-submarine warfare, armed with the Sea Ceptor air defence missile system, Sting Ray torpedoes and a embarked Wildcat or Merlin helicopter, and forming the backbone of the surface fleet’s submarine-hunting capability.

The gunnery milestone comes only days after Sutherland was on the front line in a very different role, having been one of two warships supporting the Royal Marines as they boarded the sanctioned shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos in the English Channel, an operation that underlined the breadth of tasking now falling to the regenerating frigate as she works back towards full availability.

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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39 COMMENTS

  1. Glad to see in times of rising tension that one important step towards a return to full operational capability is the correct functioning of the saluting guns. Standards must not be allowed to fall.

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        • somedays it seems like h.m.s sutherland is the only active ship in the entire fleet someone in the scheduling department allocating maintenance periods and refits e.t.c nedds a slapping. so many ships unavailable at the same time is unacceptable. add to this the glacial rate at which new ships actually come into the fleet. its a mess especially when you realise that the egyptian navy is stronger in some ways than our own. i’m sick of writing to my M.P about the mess that is the royal navy.

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  4. This is probably stupid re-ask but could the 4.5″ mounts be upgraded and rebarrelled as 5″s? Might be cheaper than buying in all new BAE 5″ and create a re-usable UK pool of main guns.
    What’s happening with the NSM programme? Aren’t the remaining T23s, T45s and T31s all getting kitted out of 11 sets? None of the T45s seem to have them and maybe a couple of T23s do? Surely they’d be really useful with the lack of ready subs and airborne ashms and when facing off against Russian ships in the neighbourhood?

    • The Amount of ‘time And Money’ to turn a few 4.5 to 5′ Even IF it was possible (big If) Would be Prohibitive..!
      By the time you did All the Mods you’ll have a NEW Gun…!!

    • They can be, and as proof, they were upgraded to mount a 155mm gun a few years ago. A project that was cancelled by the MoD in order to buy American guns.

      • Thats what i thought too. And if UK industry is back manufacturing 155mm is it too big a leap to refurbish these 4.5″ mounts even if there’s only 6+8 ish? Might be able to kit out the T31s (or others) instead of with the 57mm? At least restore its AA function.

        • Don’t laugh. There is an image of a Rivers based Avenger class (117m i think) which showed a lite short calibre version of the 5″ or 4.5″ upfront.
          If they’re going to go more with the 57mm on frigates and maybe T83 (going by some images) why not develop the 57mm to fire a heavier longer range round out to 20km? The Mogami frigates that are in vogue down here all have 5″. What would you rather have? Or, its more what do our potential adversaries have?

          • there is videos on youtube showing potential b2 river replacements the arrowhead 120 catches the eye. it could be a model for our hybrid? navy as a drone ship

          • Is there actually any need for a bigger gun than the 57mm or maybe 76mm?

            When will we be doing shore bombardment or targeting large warships with guns? By far the biggest use of guns will be downing drones and that’s something the 57/76mm does better than the 5″. Against small boats they probably perform pretty similar

            Additionally there’s the cost factor. For the price of the 5″ you can buy the 57mm and three 8 cell modules of Mk.41.

            For a country with a Treasury completely adverse to military spending the latter sounds a far better use of money than a gun that allows for slightly longer ranged shots.

            Ps, max range of the 57mm is 11 miles or roughly 18km.

      • Horseshit!
        The AS90 in a 4.5” mount was a farce.
        Rate of fire was glacial
        No one ever tackled the question of a return to bagged charges in warships – see blowing up older ships.
        There were no, none, zero, zip, zilch, nada naval ammunition natures available. Not a big demand for Semi Armoured piercing high explosive or Proximity air burst natures in 155.

    • Q63,
      Perhaps, at the appropriate time, donate the weapon systems and ammunition stocks to a deserving government which has a land border w/ the Orcs? Contribution to ENATO collective defence while incurring minimal cost for HMG? Either repurposed w/in reinforced concrete emplacements or
      rail/road mobile, overlapping weapon arcs could conceivably contribute to in-depth frontier defence in a more modern and hopefully successful, reincarnation of the Maginot line. Only implement if both technically and fiscally feasible. This proposal is certainly outside the wheelhouse of my expertise, but absolutely certain the CRINKs are coming, only a matter of time. Virtually guaranteed prediction.

  10. Maybe paint a couple of the model boats in the pond in the park grey and call them part of our fantasy hybrid navy.

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