(March 2002)
Frigates to Romania
Romania has expressed her intention to purchase two decommissioned Royal Navy warships.
If the sale goes ahead, HMS London and HMS Coventry will be the first Royal Navy warships to be sold to a former communist nation.
The sale would greatly assist Romania's attempts to join NATO. Currently the Romanian fleet is equipped with obsolescent former Soviet equipment and so purchasing the two modern Type 22 frigates would greatly enhance the Romanian Navy's capabilities, allowing much greater interoperability with NATO warships operating in the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
It is reported that if the sale goes ahead the two vessels would be refitted -possibly by Daewoo Mangalia on the Black Sea Coast - to include a new command system, new guided weapons and a medium calibre gun system.
Despite only being half way through their service lives, the two Batch 2 Type 22 Frigates were decommissioned under the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which reduced the numbers of frigates and destroyers from 35 to 32.
The two ships are currently laid up in Fareham Creek, Portsmouth along with sisterships HMS Brave and HMS Boxer. A fifth vessel, HMS Beaver, has already been scrapped in Turkey.