page_title: HMS Cardiff (D108)
section_title: Decommissioning and fate
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Cardiff (D108) / Decommissioning and fate
caption_attribution_description: HMS Cardiff in Portsmouth Harbor, 2007. This is her starboard quarter, her name is rusted and worn.
context_page_description: HMS Cardiff was a British Type 42 destroyer and the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named in honour of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.
  Cardiff served in the Falklands War, where she shot down the last Argentine aircraft of the conflict and accepted the surrender of a 700-strong garrison in the settlement of Port Howard.
  During the 1991 Gulf War, her Lynx helicopter sank two Iraqi minesweepers. She later participated in the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as part of the Royal Navy's constant Armilla patrol; Cardiff thwarted attempts to smuggle oil out of the country, but was not involved in the actual invasion.
  Cardiff was decommissioned in July 2005, and sent to Turkey for scrapping despite calls by former servicemen for her to be preserved as a museum ship and local tourist attraction in Cardiff.
context_section_description: Cardiff was originally to be replaced in 2009 by Daring, the first of the Royal Navy's next generation Type 45 destroyers. However, it was announced in July 2004 that she would be one of a number of ships withdrawn from service early, in accordance with the "Delivering Security in a Changing World" white paper on the British military.
  Cardiff was decommissioned on 14 July 2005, after making a final visit to her namesake city, where members of the public were allowed on board. She then stayed in Portsmouth Harbour at Fareham Creek (50.818486°N 1.130644°W) alongside sister ship Newcastle, where both were heavily cannibalised to keep the remaining Type 42 Destroyers running.
  On 21 November 2008, the two ships left Portsmouth for the last time for Aliağa, Turkey under tow. Scrapping. Following a decommissioning ceremony at Cardiff city hall, her bell was removed and is now mounted in the north aisle of St John's Parish Church in Cardiff. Calls were made for the conversion of the ship into a Cardiff tourist attraction by a Member of the National Assembly for Wales and former naval servicemen.
  Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, has been assigned as the current Royal Navy ship to be affiliated with the city of Cardiff.
  On 1 March 2018, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that the third Type 26 frigate would be named Cardiff. This will be the fourth Royal Navy vessel of its name.
caption: Cardiff's starboard quarter (stern) in 2007, her name rusted
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