Edinburgh heads south for seven months

HMS Edinburgh is bound for the South Atlantic – at the height of the Austral winter – fresh from the final major overhaul in her proud quarter-century career.
The destroyer left a blustery but bright Portsmouth yesterday and won’t see the shores of the Solent again until the tail end of 2011.
In the intervening six or so months the veteran Type 42 will visit the Cape Verde Islands and West Africa in support of maritime security and counter-drugs/piracy operations (working with Cape Verde has already helped the RN bag £4m drugs courtesy of Edinburgh’s now-retired sister HMS Gloucester last summer).

Edinburgh's back in action - with a bang

With a flash of fire bright enough to bathe the Atlantic a pale orange momentarily, HMS Edinburgh fires her first Sea Dart in several years – proof that the Fortress of the Sea is back. With a bang.

The bang came when the Sea Dart – one of three fired by the Type 42 destroyer – downed a target drone off the coast of the Outer Hebrides.

The High Seas Firing was the last act in Edinburgh’s long road back from refit and means she’s ready to take her place in the line of battle.

More than 3,000 people enjoy the sights of (HMS) Edinburgh

YOU never forget your first minigun...

A youngster inspects one of HMS Edinburgh’s last lines of defence during the destroyer’s four-day flag-flying visit to Leith.

She was one of more than 3,000 people who sampled life aboard the Type 42 as the ship took a break from a punishing early spring training schedule.

The Fortress of the Sea has just completed Operational Sea Training off Plymouth and is just about to embark on the latest Joint Warrior war game off North-west Scotland.

In between she found just enough time to pay her first visit to Edinburgh in more than two years.

'Well-tested' Edinburgh arrives in Scotland's capital

IF I had a hammer…

Oh I do.

A leading hand from HMS Edinburgh struggles to halt the torrent has batters wedges into a crack as the Type 42 grapples with a disaster relief exercise.

After a refit – the very last carried out on this class of destroyers – this exercise was the ultimate test of the Portsmouth-based warship outside an operational deployment.