HMCS Huron (DDH 281)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | mid 1960s |
| Laid down: | June 1, 1969 |
| Launched: | April 9, 1971 |
| Commissioned: | December 16, 1972 |
| Decommissioned: | March 31, 2005 |
| Fate: | Sunk May 14, 2007 100 km off the west coast of Vancouver Island in a SINK-EX. |
| Struck: | N/A |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4700 tons or 5100 tons full loaded |
| Length: | 129 metres |
| Beam: | 15 metres |
| Draught: | 4.7 metres |
| Propulsion: | two shafts, two Pratt & Whitney FT4-A2 gas turbines (37 megawatts at the shaft), two Allison 570-KF gas turbines (5.6 megawatts at the shaft) |
| Speed: | 29 knots or 54 km/h |
| Range: | 4500 nautical miles |
| Complement: | 285 |
| Armament: | 1 29-cell VLS (Standard SM-2MR Block IIIA), 1 76 mm/62 OTO Melara (Super Rapid) DP, 0.5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, 1 20 mm Close-In Weapons Systems, 2 triple Mark-46 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes firing Mark-46 Mod 5 torpedoes |
| Aircraft: | 2 CH-124 Sea King helicopters |
| Motto: | Ready the Brave |
| Badge: | Blazon Or, nicotine bloom gules, seedpod vert, and stamens or |
| Colours: | Gold and crimson |
| Battle Honours: | |
HMCS Huron (DDG 281) was an Iroquois-class destroyer of the Canadian Navy, decommissioned in 2005.
She was named after HMCS Huron, one of the original Tribal class destroyers built for the Commonwealth navies. Commissioned in July 1943, she wore pennants G24 and then 216 until she was paid off in April 1963.
The Huron was a member of the Iroquois class, commonly called "280's" or the "Tribal class" by Canadian Forces personnel. Huron wore pennant 281 and was commissioned in December 1972 at Marine Industries in Sorel, Quebec.
The warship's main role was anti-submarine warfare (ASW) during the Cold War and played a role during the Gulf War in 1991. Huron was also sent to Adriatic Sea in 1993. In 1999, the ship was used to stop a ship smuggling illegal migrants into Canada. [1]
Huron was retro-fitted in 1994 under the TRUMP (Tribal-class Update and Modernization Program) configuration. In the early 2000s, defence cutbacks to Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) saw cutbacks in personnel and Huron was left without a crew; she was placed in mothball status. In 2005 she was taken from this reserve mode and paid off from the Canadian Forces while awaiting disposal at CFB Esquimalt.
On May 14, 2007 at a MARPAC offshore weapons range, 150 km west of Vancouver Island [2], the SINK-EX named exercise Trident Fury 2007 was to see a variety of MARPAC ships and AIRCOM aircraft bombard Huron with artillery, missiles, strafing fire, and finally be sunk by a torpedo launced from a submarine, however, naval gunfire from HMCS Algonquin was all that was required. Ironically, Algonquin's main deck gun was formerly part of Huron's armament, meaning Huron was sunk by one of its own guns.[3] This sinking marked the first Canadian warship to be operationally sunk in Canadian waters. [4]Interestingly, none of the supposedly "modern" weapons systems were capable of sinking the ship, only the final blow from a large deck gun was able to even damage her. Some note this as showing the ineffectiveness of "modern" destroyers in ship-to-ship combat. Although it should be noted that the only missle used in the excersise was a Sea Sparrow surface to air missle and not a surface to surface antiship missle, which would be the primary antiship weapon of a modern destroyer.
Huron's crest consists of a nicotine bloom, which pays tribute to the Huron peoples who were known for their tobacco use.
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