The Weird Looking Ship that Almost Started WW3

In modern naval history, few moments stand as tense as the day the HMS Defender, a crown jewel of the British Royal Navy, sailed the disputed waters off the Crimean Peninsula in 2021. This ship, the fifth of the Daring-class air-defense destroyers, was not just any vessel. Commissioned in March 2013, with a displacement of up to 8,500 tonnes and a length of 152.4 meters, the Defender is a testament to Britain's naval engineering prowess.

Its motto, "Defendendo vinco" - "By defending I win," echoed its purpose
As the Defender navigated the disputed waters of the Black Sea, its formidable missile systems stood ready. Part of a NATO operation related to counterterrorism, it was cruising calmly when Russian Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters suddenly appeared on the horizon. The Russian Coast Guard's voice crackled over the radio, a dire warning: (QUOTE) “Change course, or you will be fired upon.” But before the Defender could even respond, an Su-24 unleashed a bomb headed directly in its path….

[vxrdrummer]

I served on a T42, HMS Gloucester and then 2 Type 45s, Dauntless and Dragon. When they work, these ships are badass. The radar (MFR) and PAAMS Sea Viper are second to none. We killed everything in the air in every training scenario easily, and Daring populated the air picture for an entire US Carrier battlegroup and the US Cdr asked Daring to sever the Link 16 as the US operators were getting no training value as 1 Type 45 was creating all the tracks and data on its own. Pretty much unjammable as well as MFR and LRR hoof out so much power. I designed some of the training for the Gas Turbine and I'm very proud of that contribution.

[Tommy-ymvu]

My Dad worked in that shipyard for over 50 years. His dad too, The highlight for him was going on often extended sea trials, sometimes for months while they worked out all the bugs, well that was his story, but he always came back with an impossibly impressive suntan. He was looking forward to working on the Type 45's but it wasn't to be. (Cancer) I just wish he could have seen the Carriers that were built just after. He literally gave his life for that place but was very proud of what they built and loved taking us to the Launches.

[doogleticker]

One of the biggest blunders with the Daring class was to stop building them after six were built!!

[stuc]

I worked on all these ships while under construction in both Govan and scotstoun sites and went out on sea trials with the 6th ship HMS Duncan, I’m actually writing this comment while working on the new type 26 submarine hunter class of ships in Scotstoun, I’m proud of what we can nail together on the Clyde

[AndrewinAus]

I have to admit I love the fact that HMS Dragon has a dragon painted on the bow.

[Brian-omhh]

The Russian aircraft would hardly "suddenly" appear over the horizon. HMS Daring's radars would easily pick those aircraft up 200 to 300 miles away. Daring's fire control radar is capable of tracking objects in space, such as satellites....

[moreheff]

I have actually stood on HMS Defender when she visited Greenwich (in London, not the US) around 2017/18. She was/is an absolute beauty. Her very patient and friendly crew answered any questions us admiring civilians threw at them, no matter how daft. It did however make me (and them) laugh when we were allowed to stick our heads in the main control room and a plethora of computer monitors showing they were still using Windows 8 (or something similarly out of date at the time) The crew were laughing about it saying that the system was not capable at that time of being updated to the latest software, although they did go to great pains to point out that it still worked perfectly fine and they could still track or deal with anything they wanted to!! They were rightly very proud of their ship and their role within the RN and I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for them and all their colleagues who put themselves in awkward positions to help protect us 💗

[RubbishGimpy]

The radar covered on the Type 42 Sheffield class could detect and attack 3 simultaneous targets at once. During the Falklands War the ships radar system literally had the be switched off and on again.
These Type 45s Samson radar can simultaneously detect and attack 300 hundred targets. The Navy learnt a lesson in the Falklands.

[ronaldreeves]

Go go great britain, good to see your creative, engineering and military skill are still alive.

I dont always agree with your govt but things like this impress me, and as us citizen glad to have you as our ally in these troubled times.

[tommallory]

Best thing about living in portsmouth getting to see these ships everyday I come home.

[cameroncumming]

Having a brother that’s served on her, visiting for family day and having had the chance to steer this Beast, best ship in our navy

[EndofMoon]

Not a single bomb was dropped that day. Whilst shots were fired the ship was well out of range of the coast guard vessel. Source: was there. But lets not let the facts get in the way of a good dit 😂😂

[Only-Me-UC]

They knew the planes were heading their way long before appearing. Nothing surprised them from the air.

[richardswanson]

the fact that a single RN ship had the b4lls to do that is amazing. i;ve seen another account of this and they were buzzed by 27 russian aircraft and had everyone of them tracked

[Bob-qkzg]

24 feet deep is comparable to Japanese battleships of WW2. It's a bigger boat than I thought.

[beouyvi]

When we Brits get it right it works and becomes the envy of others. Great ship class indeed

[robertmarsh]

Very capable ships notwithstanding propulsion issues. Perhaps a bigger issue is that the RN only has 6 rather than the original hoped for 12 or anticipated 8 units. Sadly looks like the same dubious economies may be applied to the forthcoming generation of destroyers and frigates too. No matter how capable, a ship can't be in two places at once.

[ET-jvwm]

At this point the Black Sea fleet is just jealous of any naval ship thats still floating 😂😂😂😂

[EXRazeBurn]

This is what happens when you try to build a ship to counter what Russia CLAIMS it has in its arsenal, instead of what it DOES.

[ashleygoggs]

For any of our US friends interested in the story of HMS Defender and her tirades with the russian army in crimean waters, there is a documentary by the BBC called Warships where this incident was documented, you can see lots of russian planes stalking them. Also in this series they monitored the recent maiden voyage to the south china sea with the Queen Elizabeth carrier which later joined with the US navy as they both travelled the south china sea as brothers in arms. Great series of documentaries and also shows the key importance the uk holds in keeping the russian arctic fleet in check.