HMS Kent (D12)

Kent was one of two County-class destroyers ordered under the British Admiralty's 1956–57 shipbuilding programme. She was laid down at Harland & Wolff's Belfast shipyard on 1 March 1960 and launched by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent on 27 September 1961. The ship was completed on 15 August 1963.) and two Metrovick G6 gas turbines (each rated at ), with the gas turbines being used for high speeds and to allow a quick departure from ports without waiting for steam to be raised. Maximum speed was and the ship had a range of at . Up to 39 Seaslugs could be carried horizontally in a magazine that ran much of the length of the ship. Close-in anti-aircraft protection was provided by a pair of Seacat missile launchers, while two twin QF 4.5 inch Mark V gun mounts were fitted forward. A helicopter deck and hangar allowed a single Westland Wessex helicopter to be operated. Type 184 sonar was fitted. ==Operational service==

After her commissioning and work-up, Kent spent the balance of her career as an escort to the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier fleet. She deployed at various times with , , and in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. She was hard worked throughout the 1960s, along with her batch-1 County sister ships, as they were the only guided missile-armed destroyers in the fleet until the latter half of the 1960s. One role was as host ship for the Withdrawal from Empire negotiations in Gibraltar (citation needed). She suffered a fire during refitting in 1976 but was soon repaired and was present for the Silver Jubilee fleet review of 1977. In the late 1960s all four of the batch-1 County-class vessels were planned to be upgraded with the superior Sea Slug Mk-2 system, but the upgrades were cancelled in 1967–68 because the amount of time the ships would be out of the operational fleet while being refitted. However, some batch-2 improvements were made during mid life refits, including upgrading the Seacat system from GWS21 to GWS22 and fitting Type 992Q target indicator radar instead of Type 992. Kent was refitted from June 1969 to December 1972. ==Decommissioning and harbour service==

Kent was decommissioned in the summer of 1980, after only 17 years of active service and became the replacement for and Fleet Training Ship (FTS), moored to the lower end of Whale Island outboard of the defunct support ship opposite Fountain Lake, Portsmouth Naval Base. At the beginning of the Falklands War, she was surveyed for possible recommissioning (her large size, helicopter deck and four 4.5-inch guns would have made her a good command and shore bombardment ship), but her two years of neglect left her in such a state that extensive repairs would be necessary to render her seaworthy, and no work was started. She spent 1982 through to 1984 as a live asset for artificer and mechanic training supporting and , her machinery largely in serviceable condition. In 1984 she also became a harbour training ship for the Sea Cadet Corps. She was paid off from this in 1987 and became a training hulk at Portsmouth until stricken in 1993, though she lingered on, tied up to the same pier at Portsmouth Naval Base until 1996. Kent was sold for scrap, and in 1998 she was towed to India to be broken up. ==Commanding officers==

Notable commanding officers include Iwan Raikes in 1968, Richard P Clayton between 1968 and 1969 and Jock Slater in 1976–1977. ==References==