HMS Dragon is the fourth ship of the Type 45 or Daring-class air-defence destroyers built for the Royal Navy. She was launched in November 2008 and commissioned on 20 April 2012.
Construction
Dragons construction began at the then BAE Systems Naval Ships yard at Scotstoun on the River Clyde in December 2005, and by December 2007 the bow section was in place on the Govan slipway for mating with the other modules. Dragon launched from the slipway at Govan on 17 November 2008 at 3:00pm. Her sponsor was Mrs Susie Boissier, wife of Vice Admiral Paul Boissier, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet and Chief of Staff. She was fitted out at Scotstoun.
Dragon joined the Royal Navy Surface Fleet on Friday, 20 April 2012. On Friday 27 April she made her maiden visit to Liverpool, staying for three days. She was opened to the public on Saturday 28 April, with visitors able to see the inside of the ship, including the operations room. In August 2013, it was reported that Dragon was sailing with the carrier group in the Arabian Sea, acting as the main point ship for aircraft control. In August 2013, several Typhoons from No. 6 Squadron RAF were exercising with Dragon and US fighters in the Gulf. It has sailed westwards to the Eastern Mediterranean. In April 2014, Dragon was deployed to waters north of Scotland, after having sailed from Portsmouth, to track the Russian warship. She was part of the Royal Navy's Atlantic Patrol Tasking in late 2014 in which she visited places such as the South Georgia Islands, the Falkland Islands and a transit through the Panama Canal. In October 2016, Dragon was sent to track two Russian corvettes in the Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay during a major deployment of Russian naval forces near the United Kingdom. On 11 February 2017, Dragon rescued the fourteen crew of the British yacht Clyde Challenger which had been dismasted and was adrift in the Atlantic Ocean south west of Land's End, Cornwall. Clyde Challenger was subsequently scuttled. On 26 November 2018 it was announced that Dragon had discovered a suspicious boat while on operation in the Middle East. Sailors and Royal Marines boarded the vessel and found 148 bags hidden on board containing 3,048kg of hashish. On 15 March 2019 Dragon made its seventh drug seizure: 224kg of heroin from a fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea. During her time in the Arabian Sea, Dragon made 8 drug busts and seized over 18 tonnes of narcotics, this is a record for the number of successful busts and the total weight of drugs seized by a Royal Navy ship in the Middle East. As of March 2019, HMS Montrose will take over her current patrol role in the Middle East.
Characteristics
Dragon features a red Welsh Dragon on each side of her bow, the only Royal Navy ship to be adorned in this way. The dragons were there when she was launched, but were removed in a 2011 refit. They were restored in 2016 following a fundraising campaign led by the British Warships Association.
