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HMS Brilliant (F90)


Frigate Warship [ 1981 ]



A Falklands War veteran, HMS Brilliant F90 was sold off to the Brazilian Navy after her usefulness in the British Royal Navy had ended.



Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 04/14/2017 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

VIEW SPECIFICATIONS [+]
The Type 22 "Broadsword" class of frigate was established by the British Royal Navy (RN) as a fourteen-strong group to be completed across three individual construction batches. The types served a critical role in the RN during the Cold War years and eventually saw combat service during the Falklands War (1982) against Argentina. Once their usefulness to the RN had run out, two hulls were used as targets, five were sold for scrapping, and seven were sold off to the navies of Brazil, Chile, and Romania. The last ship of the class - HMS Cornwall - was removed from service in June of 2011.

HMS Brilliant (F90) made up the third ship of the first construction batch following HMS Broadsword (F88) and HMS Battleaxe (F89). All of the first batch were constructed at Yarrow in Glasgow with Brilliant being ordered on September 7th, 1976, and seeing her keel being laid down on March 25th, 1977. She was launched on December 15th, 1978 and formally commissioned on May 15th, 1981.

Brilliant exhibited a workmanlike appearance with its many details when viewed in profile. The superstructure made up a good portion of her above deck mass structure which was capped by a twin-mast approach - one held forward and the other aft. The bridge was set at front in the usual way, overlooking the forecastle, and identified by its large section of windows along the front and sides. Smoke funnels were featured at amidships and a helicopter landing deck was positioned over the stern. She displaced at 4,400 tons and held a length of 430 feet with a beam of 48 feet and a draught of 20 feet. Her crew complement reached 222 personnel.©MilitaryFactory.com
Performance for the vessel came by way of 2 x Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B boost gas turbines (54,600 shaft horsepower) coupled with 2 x Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shaft horsepower) in a COGOG arrangement driving 2 x shafts. COGOG (COmbined Gas and Gas) supplied the vessel with two modes of gas-fueled turbine operation depending on whether cruising speeds or a short boost of speed was in order. This allowed speeds of 30 knots to be reached while cruising was closer to the 18-knot range.

Despite her merchant-like appearance, HMS Brilliant was a fighting frigate and outfitted for the dangers of Cold War sea warfare. This included 2 x 6 GWS25 series "Seawolf" Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) launchers, 4 x French "Exocet" Surface-to-Surface Anti-Ship (AS) launchers, and 2 x 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft (AA) cannons. Additional support came in the form of the 2 x Westland Lynx Mk.8 series naval helicopters carried and these birds were utilized primarily in submarine hunting and anti-ship operations.

A year after her introduction, HMS Brilliant was ordered to the South Atlantic as part of the large British Task Force responding to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. Once on station, she became the first Royal Navy vessel to fire the BAC/BAe "Sea Wolf" surface-to-air missile and successfully downed three marauding Argentine Douglas A-4 Skyhawk multi-role fighters. She also used her two-strong fleet of Lynx naval helicopters in a failed attempt to engage ARA Santa Fe (S-21), an attack submarine of the Argentine Navy (Santa Fe vessel was eventually overtaken in shallow waters during April 1982 and scuttled by the British). On May 25th, she helped save members of the British merchant navy ship Atlantic Conveyor after it fell victim to Argentine Exocet anti-ship missiles. The war ended on June 14th, 1982 with a British victory and continued control of the Falklands. Her only scars of the war were in a May 23 attack by Argentine aircraft who strafed her with guns resulting in only minor damage.

HMS Brilliant lived out her days in British Royal Navy service into the mid-1990s when, in 1996, she was decommissioned and sold off to the Brazilian Navy. Her sea tenure continued for a time under the Brazilian naval flag as "Dodsworth" (F47) until her stripped hulk was formally retired and sold off to Turkey for scrapping.©MilitaryFactory.com
Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

Specifications



Brazil (as Dodsworth F47); United Kingdom
Operators National flag of Brazil National flag of the United Kingdom
1981
Commissioned
United Kingdom
National Origin
222
Complement
Type 22
Hull Class
14
Number-in-Class
HMS Broadsword (F88); HMS Battleaxe (F89); HMS Brilliant (F90); HMS Brazen (F91); HMS Boxer (F92); HMS Beaver (F93); HMS Brave (F94); HMS London (F95); HMS Sheffield (F96); HMS Coventry (F98); HMS Cornwall (F99); HMS Cumberland (F85); HMS Campbelltown (F86); HMS Chatham (F87)
Ships-in-Class


Offshore Bombardment
Offshore bombardment / attack of surface targets / areas primarily through onboard ballistic weaponry.
Land-Attack
Offshore strike of surface targets primarily through onboard missile / rocket weaponry.
Maritime Patrol
Active patroling of vital waterways and maritime areas; can also serve as local deterrence against airborne and seaborne threats.
Airspace Denial / Deterrence
Neutralization or deterrence of airborne elements through onboard ballistic of missile weaponry.
Fleet Support
Serving in support (either firepower or material) of the main surface fleet in Blue Water environments.


430.0 feet
(131.06 meters)
Length
48.0 feet
(14.63 meters)
Beam
20.0 feet
(6.10 meters)
Draught
4,400
tons
Displacement


2 x Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines developing 54,600 shaft horsepower with 2 x Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C gas turbines developing 9,700 shaft horsepower in COGOG arrangement driving 2 x shafts.
Propulsion
18.0 knots
(20.7 mph)
Surface Speed
1 knot = 1.15 mph; 1 nm = 1.15 mile; 1 nm = 1.85 km


2 x 6 GWS25 "Seawolf" surface-to-air missile launchers
4 x "Exocet" surface-to-surface missile launchers
2 x 40mm Bofors autocannons


2 x Westland Lynx naval helicopters (typically one).


Military lapel ribbon for the Cold War period
Military lapel ribbon for early warship designs
Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War
Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War
Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War
Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft
Military lapel ribbon for the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Military lapel ribbon for the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Images



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Image of the HMS Brilliant (F90)
Image from the United States Department of Defense imagery database.

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