Built in 1959-’63 by John Brown & Co., Clydebank fot the Royal Navy.
‘County’ class destroyer, displacement:5300/6900 tons, L:153,92m. (505’) B:16,46m. (54’) draft:6,25m. (20’6”) COSAG, turbines:30,000 shp. (22,000 kW.) 4 G6 gasturbines:30,000 shp. (22,000 kW.) 30 kn. Crew:471, armament:4-4,5” Mark 6 guns, 2 mountings for Oerlikon 20 mm. canons, 1 twin Seaslug surface to air missile launcher, 2 quad GWS-21 Seacat short range surface to air missile launcher, 1 Wessex helicopter.
HMS Hampshire D-06 County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Laid down, in March 1959 a couple of weeks behind the class leader Devonshire, she was classified as a Guided Missile destroyer, as the Sea Lords regarded the concept of the Cruiser and big gun ship as discredited by the perceived failure of the Tiger class and the obsolescence of the heavy gun. The description of Guided Missile Destroyer seemed more likely to win approval from the Treasury and Government for an adequate number of warships the size of small cruisers which could play many traditional cruiser flagship and command functions but had armour around neither its gun or missile magazine. In the late 1960's there were plans to upgrade Hampshire and sister destroyers armed with Seaslug Mk 1 but this was rejected because of the amount of the time the ships would be out of the operational fleet. She was decommissioned in 1976 at a time the Labour Government was making severe defence cuts under pressure from the IMF. and cannibalised for spares to service her sister ships. Hampshire was sold for scrap in 1979.
(Lesotho 1999, 4 M. StG.?) Internet.