HMS Avenger (F185)

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HMS Avenger (F185) was a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy, built by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Glasgow. She was laid down in 1974, launched in 1975, and commissioned in 1978. Avenger’s home port was HMNB Devonport, and her pennant number was F185. She earned the Falklands Islands 1982 battle honour.

In the Falklands War, Avenger arrived late but made the fastest transit from the UK to the conflict, reaching the Falklands in 14 days. The ship, powered by Rolls‑Royce Olympus turbines, could reach high speeds and averaged about 28 knots during the campaign. On 30 May 1982 she survived an Exocet missile attack aimed at the carrier Invincible. Her crew recovered a 20 mm Oerlikon gun from the wreck of HMS Antelope and mounted it on Avenger as “Antelope’s Avenger.” On 11 June she fired naval gunfire in support around Port Stanley, including a strike on a house used as a civilian shelter, which caused civilian casualties—the only British civilian deaths in the war.

During the Falklands deployment, Avenger developed a hull crack in stormy seas. After returning to the UK, she was refitted with steel plates along her sides to stop the crack and to reduce hull noise.

From 1983, Avenger and her sister ship Ambuscade served on the Royal Navy’s Armilla Patrol in the Persian Gulf. The day a Westland Lynx helicopter from Avenger crashed off Muscat, Oman, the ship’s captain, Peter Woodhead, survived; he initially refused another helicopter transfer but both he and the crew survived.

Avenger remained leader of the 4th Frigate Squadron until 1986. She was decommissioned and sold to Pakistan on 23 September 1994, where she was renamed PNS Tippu Sultan (D185) and served as part of the 25th Destroyer Squadron. The ship was expended as a target on 27 April 2020. Avenger carried a Westland Wasp helicopter, later refitted to carry an Alouette III and a Westland Lynx.