HMS Clyde (P257)

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Career (UK)

Name:	HMS Clyde (P257)
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	2005
Builder:	VT Shipbuilding
Laid down:	2005
Launched:	14 June 2006
Commissioned:	30 January 2007
Motto:	Clwo "Strength"
Fate:	Active in service as of 2008
General characteristics
Class and type:	River class patrol vessel
Displacement:	1,850 tonnes
Length:	81.5 m
Beam:	13.6 m
Draught:	3.8 m
Propulsion:	2 × Ruston 12RK 270 engines developing 4,125 kW @ 1,000 rpm
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h)
Range:	7,800 nautical miles (10,200 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	36 (room for 20 extra personnel)
Armament:	30 mm gun, 2 × GPMGs
Aircraft carried:	Flight Deck arrangements of sufficient size to take Lynx, Sea King and Merlin helicopters

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Clyde.

HMS Clyde (P257) is the ninth ship in the Royal Navy to bear the name. She was launched on 14 June 2006 in Portsmouth Naval Base by VT Group shipbuilders in Portsmouth, England and is the fourth vessel of the River class and the first of a lengthened variety with a displacement of 1,850 tonnes and a 30 mm Oerlikon KCB gun in place of the 20 mm gun fitted to other River class ships.

Clyde was the first ship built entirely in Portsmouth Naval base for 40 years and has been constructed alongside the bow and superstructure sections for the new Type 45 destroyers HMS Daring (D32) and HMS Dauntless (D33). She was named in a ceremony on 7 September 2006 as she had not received a traditional launching ceremony ^[1].

HMS Clyde was accepted into the Royal Navy in a ceremony at Portsmouth Naval base on January 30, 2007. The White Ensign will then be raised for the first time in the offshore patrol vessel built by VT Shipbuilding. Since the launch of the vessel VT has been completing the ship's fitting out, followed by contractor's sea trials. ^[2]

She and her ship's company went through a rigorous series of trials and safety training before undergoing operational sea training in Scotland. After being commissioned into active service she was sent to the South Atlantic to relieve HMS Dumbarton Castle as the Royal Navy's patrol vessel in the area based in the Falkland Islands. Unlike predecessors in this role it is anticipated that HMS Clyde will be able to stay in Atlantic waters for some five years until 2012 when she will return to the United Kingdom for a refit.