HMS Hampshire was a destroyer of the Royal Navy. Laid down, in March 1959 a couple of weeks behind the class leader, 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 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 no armour around its gun and missile magazine.
Construction and design
Hampshire was one of two County-class destroyers ordered under the British Admiralty's 1955–56 shipbuilding programme. She was laid down at John Brown & Company's Clydebank shipyard on 26 March 1959 and launched by Princess Margaret on 16 March 1961. The ship was completed on 15 March 1963. Hampshire was long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draught of. Displacement was normal and deep load. The ship was propelled by a combination of steam turbines and gas turbines in a Combined steam and gas arrangement, driving two propeller shafts. Each shaft could by driven by a single steam turbine and two Metrovick G6 gas turbines, 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. A twin launcher for the Seaslug anti-aircraft missile was fitted aft. The Seaslug GWS1 was a beam riding missile which had an effective range of about. 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 launchers, while two twin QF 4.5 inch Mark Vgun mounts were fitted forward. A helicopter deck and hangar allowed a single Westland Wessex helicopter to be operated. A Type 965 long-range air-search radar and a Type 278 height-finding radar was fitted on the ship's mainmast, with a Type 992Q navigation radar and an array of ESM aerials were mounted on the ship's foremast. Type 901 fire control radar for the Seaslug missile was mounted aft. Type 184 sonar was fitted.
Operational service
From her third Commission in 1967 Hampshire flew the flag of the Flag Officer, Western Fleet. In July 1969 she was present at Torbay for the Royal Review and presentation of a new colour to the Western Fleet.
Decommissioning and disposal
In the late 1960s there were plans to upgrade Hampshire and sister destroyers armed with Seaslug Mk 1, with Seaslug Mk 2 and a digital combat system being fitted, but the upgrade of Hampshire and Devonshire was cancelled on 31 March 1967 because of the amount of the time the ships would be out of the operational fleet, with the remaining two upgrades cancelled in 1968. In 1976 she was the first of the County-class destroyers to be decommissioned. This was at a time the Labour Government was making severe defence cuts under pressure from the International Monetary Fund. She was cannibalised for spares to service her sister ships and subsequently sold for scrap in 1979, being broken up at Briton Ferry by Thos W Ward.
Commanding officers
In media
The Hampshire appears in the UFO episode "Destruction", as it is used to secretly put underwater sealed tanks filled with lethal gas from an unnamed war.
