HMS Brilliant (F90)
HMS Brilliant enters a port during exercise Ocean Safari 1985 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Brilliant |
| Operator | Royal Navy |
| Builder | Yarrow Shipbuilders |
| Laid down | 25 March 1977 |
| Launched | 15 December 1978 |
| Commissioned | 15 May 1981 |
| Decommissioned | 1996 |
| Identification | Pennant number: F90 |
| Fate | Sold to Brazil 31 August 1996 |
| Brazil | |
| Name | Dodsworth |
| Operator | Brazilian Navy |
| Identification | Pennant number: F-47 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type 22 frigate |
| Displacement | 4,400 tons |
| Length | 131.2 m (430 ft) |
| Beam | 14.8 m (48 ft) |
| Draught | 6.1 m (20 ft) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Complement | 222 |
| Armament |
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| Aircraft carried | 2 × Lynx MK 3S helicopters |
| Aviation facilities | 1 × double hangar with refuelling facilities |
HMS Brilliant was a Batch 1 Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was named under the original convention that all Type 22s would bear ‘B’ names following the ‘A’ names of the Type 21 frigates; this policy was revised after the Falklands War to commemorate the destroyers Sheffield and Coventry, both sunk during the War, while the yet‑to‑be‑laid Bloodhound was renamed HMS London (F95).
Conceived as a specialist anti‑submarine escort, she combined high speed with an advanced sonar suite and a flight deck for Westland Lynx helicopters. Ordered in February 1976, laid down by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun and launched in May 1978, her construction cost was ~£110 million.
She was decommissioned from Royal Navy service in 1996, sold to the Brazilian Navy on 31 August 1996, where she was renamed Dodsworth. Dodsworth was sold for scrap and broken up at Aliağa, Turkey, during July 2012.
Brilliant took part in the only armed ship-to-ship engagement of the Falklands War, when she and HMS Yarmouth chased the Argentine coaster ARA Monsunen, in the Battle of Seal Cove.