Royal Navy sells legacy assets - reuse or scrap

The Royal Navy had held on to old, decommissioned hulls for reserve purposes for years. This surplus tonnage is now to be rapidly reduced, as it also costs personnel, money, time and berths. The recycling company of the British Ministry of Defence has drawn up a five-year plan for this and will begin selling four ships this year exclusively for material recycling. In addition to a minesweeper, the first lot includes the much-travelled Type 23 frigates MONTROSE and MONMOUTH as well as the Type 82 destroyer BRISTOL - a single ship with air defence duties for an aircraft carrier class that was never built - which entered service in 1973. In 1982, the BRISTOL led the reinforcement group consisting of two destroyers and five frigates in the Falklands War, until she herself was ordered to protect the carrier group and subsequently took over flagship duties. A further ten years later, she was rededicated as a stationary training ship in Portsmouth and only finally decommissioned three years ago. However, only just under fifty scrapping companies that fulfil the strict technical recycling standards of the European Union are now allowed to bid for these ships. 80 per cent of these plants are located in Europe, nine in Turkey and one in the USA. Wait and watch.