Upon introduction in the early 1980s they were the largest warships ever built out of
glass-reinforced plastic and were the last in operation to use the
Napier Deltic diesel engine. All were built by
Vosper Thornycroft in
Woolston except and , which were built by
Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited on the
River Clyde. was the last ship of the class launched. Following the sale of and to the Greek Navy, the sale of and to the Lithuanian Navy and the decommissioning of , a contract to re-engine the remaining eight vessels was signed by
BAE Systems in 2008, whereby the existing 30-year old Napier Deltic 9-59K power units were replaced by
Caterpillar CAT C32 engines, together with new gearboxes, bow thrusters, propellers and control systems, in a six-year refurbishment programme that was completed in 2018. The capabilities of the remaining eight vessels of the Hunt class have been significantly enhanced by the installation of
Sonar Type 2193 and the NAUTIS 3 command system. The performance of Sonar 2193 exceeds that of any other mine hunting sonar in service in the world today and is capable of detecting and classifying an object the size of a football at a distance of up to . In late 2007
Chiddingfold used the
Seafox drone, the Royal Navy's mine disposal system, during
Exercise Neptune Warrior off Scotland. Seafox is described by the MOD as a
"state of the art fire and forget system, capable of destroying mines in depths of up to 300 metres". The 2021 defence white paper announced that all the Hunt-class vessels would be retired from Royal Navy service in the 2020s and replaced by automated systems. It was subsequently indicated that the withdrawal would occur in the 2029 to 2031 period. In 2023, the navy began to take delivery of six REMUS 300 small autonomous underwater vehicles (SAUVs), produced by Huntington Ingalls Industries. The system is being acquired to enhance the capabilities of the
Hunt-class ships and has a reported operating depth of 300 meters with an endurance time of up to 20 hours. ==Ships in the class==