1963 HMS FEARLESS. The first new amphibious warfare vessel commissioned into the Royal Navy since the end of World War II, HMS Fearless was to become a priceless asset some two decades after the order for her was placed.
EXTENDING THE ARMYS REACH
Constructed at Harland & Wolffs yard in Belfast and launched on 19 December 1 963, HMS Fearless like her sister-ship, Intrepid, built the following year on the Clyde was designed to transport some 400 men together with 15 tanks and 24 wheeled vehicles. The vessels landed them by means of the four LCU landing craft, each one carried in her well deck aft, access to which was gained by flooding down the rear of the ship by pumping 6000t of seawater into ballast tanks. With an autonomy of around 5000 miles (9250km) and the ability to refuel and re-provision at sea, the ships gave the British forces the ability to reach any part of the globe in considerable strength and land there under fire if necessary. In 1982 both ships were assigned to Operation Corporate, the campaign to regain control of the Falkland Islands from Argentina. Fearless acted as Command Ship of the Amphibious Group, landing 40 Commando RM at San Carlos on 21 May and losing one of her landing craft and six men to enemy Skyhawk bombers in Choiseul Sound on 8 June.
LIGHT PROTECTION
Usually surrounded by powerful escorts, the British assault ships were only lightly armed, and then only against attack from the air. As built, Fearless had a quad launcher for GWS2O Seacat short-range point- defence surface-to-air missiles, two 40mm Mk 9 Bofors in single mounts on the bridge wings, two single 30mm cannon aft and a 20mm cannon forward. The 30mm cannon were replaced by a pair of Mk 15 Phalanx close-in weapons systems during a modernisation in 1989-90 in which she also received Type 994 search radar, Type 978 navigation radar and the CAAIS data management system.
TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Assault ship
Machinery 2-shaft geared turbines totalling 22,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 158.5m (520ft) beam, 24.4m (80ff)
Displacement: 11,000t normal, 12,120t deep load, 22,000t with well deck flooded
Draught. 6.3m (20.5ff) normal
Complement: 580 (plus 400 troops)
