Royal Navy: HMS Monmouth auctioned off as Turkish scrapyard companies bid for Type 23 frigate
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A Royal Navy frigate has been auctioned off to Turkish-based shipyards due to being “uneconomical to repair”.
HMS Monmouth was put up for tender alongside three other retired ships. In response to a freedom of information request made in the Summer of 2024, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed the Type 23 Duke-class frigate received two bids from naval recycling companies.
The result of the auction is not yet available. HMS Walney, a Sandown-class minehunter, was also listed alongside HMS Bristol and HMS Montrose as part of the tender.
A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “Both HMS Monmouth and HMS Walney were put up for sale as they were beyond their intended lifespan, uneconomical to repair, and both would have required a time-consuming and costly refit to remain in service.”
The two companies to make bids for HMS Monmouth include Leyal Gemi Sokum Sanayi Ve Ticaret Ltd Sti and Sok Denizcilik Ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. The former describes itself on its website as a “ship dismantling and recycling company”, with the latter being in the same industry. Both firms submitted bids for the Type 82 destroyer HMS Bristol, with HMS Montrose not attracting any sales interest.
The Plymouth-based Duke-class frigate was launched by Lady Eaton in 1991 and was commissioned two years later. She has been deployed across the world including the Antarctic in 2004, a circumnavigation across the globe in 2007, the Persian Gulf in 2009, the Indian Ocean in 2011 and among other parts of the world.
The Royal Navy frigate acted as an escort for HMS Queen Elizabeth, with the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier taking part in Westlant 18 on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Her Wildcat HMA2 helicopter, nicknamed Blackjack, was the first aircraft of its type to land on HMS Queen Elizabeth in September 3, 2018.
She was decommissioned on June 30, 2021 after being stripped of her weapons, sensors and laid up by the end of 2020. She did not undergo the life extension programme which many of her sister ships undertook.