Romanian frigate Regina Maria (F222)

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Regina Maria underway in Constanța, August 2014
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS London
Namesake	London
Builder	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down	7 February 1983
Launched	27 October 1984
Commissioned	5 June 1987
Decommissioned	14 January 1999
Identification	Pennant number: F95
Fate	Sold to Romania on 14 January 2003
Romania
Name	Regina Maria
Namesake	Marie of Edinburgh
Acquired	14 January 2003
Commissioned	21 April 2005
Identification	Pennant number: F222 MMSI number: 264800091 MarineTraffic ID: 6269266 Callsign:YQYN
Status	In active service
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Type 22 frigate
Displacement	5,300 tonnes
Length	148.1 m (486 ft)
Beam	14.8 m (49 ft)
Draught	6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion	2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines (54,000 shp / 40 MW) 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp / 7.2 MW)
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (cruise) 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (max)
Complement	250
Armament	2 × 6 GWS25 Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile launchers 4 × 1 MM.38 Exocet surface-to-surface missile launchers 2 × Twin 30 mm BMARC anti-aircraft guns 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns 4 × 7.62 mm general purpose machine guns As Regina Maria: 76/62 Oto Melara Super-Rapid gun
Aircraft carried	Lynx Mk.8 As Regina Maria: IAR-330 Puma Naval

Regina Maria (F222) is a Type 22 frigate of the Romanian Naval Forces, formerly a Royal Navy ship named HMS London (F95). It is named after Queen Marie of Romania, wife of King Ferdinand I of Romania.

Service[edit]

HMS London was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy, originally named Bloodhound but renamed London at the request of the Lord Mayor of London.

She was flagship of the Royal Navy task force during the 1991 Gulf War.

She was decommissioned on 14 January 1999 and sold to the Romanian Navy on 14 January 2003, being commissioned as Regina Maria on 21 April 2005. Before the sale the Sea Wolf and Exocet missile systems were removed, and the only armament the ship had when delivered was two 30 mm BMARC cannons and two three-tube anti-submarine torpedo launchers. The Romanian Navy had a 76 mm OTO-Melara gun system fitted forward where the Exocets had been mounted, but no missile systems or additional weapons have been fitted. There has since been some controversy over the price for which Romania purchased the ship.^[1]

Romanian authorities are currently working in collaboration with the Romanian COMOTI institute [ro] to replace two of the Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines with two ST40M turbine engines designed at COMOTI.^[2]

Commanding officers[edit]

Notable commanding officers include Iain Henderson (1990-1991), Mark Stanhope (1991-1992) and Timothy McClement (1992-1994).

Gallery[edit]

• 
  HMS London
• 
  HMS London (F95) docked in port during Operation Desert Shield.
• 
  Romanian frigate Regina Maria at the Trafalgar 200th Anniversary.
• 
  Regina Maria during exercise Sea Breeze 2016.

See also[edit]

• NMS Regina Maria (Regele Ferdinand-class destroyer), a World War II-era namesake

References[edit]

Publications[edit]

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.