page_title: HMS Bristol (D23)
section_title: Falklands War (1982)
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Bristol (D23) / Active service / Falklands War (1982)
caption_attribution_description: HMS Bristol storing war supplies at Ascension Island 1982.
context_page_description: HMS Bristol (D23) is a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy. Originally intended as the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s, Bristol turned out to be a unique ship: the rest of the class were cancelled with the CVA-01 carriers in the 1966 Strategic Defence Review. Following a long career which included the Falklands War, she was converted into a training ship in 1987 and continues to serve in that role. In 1991 while part of the Dartmouth training squadron, she suffered a Olympus gas turbine failure that damaged the power turbine. The damage was beyond economical repair and no longer having enough value to be sold to another navy, she became a Harbour Training ship at HMS Excellent. She is expected to be decommissioned and "released for disposal" on 31 March 2021.
context_section_description: Bristol was suitable for use as a flagship as she was large enough to embark the extra staff members necessary for this role. She served as the Royal Navy flagship during the 1981 Ocean Safari exercise. After a short refit, during which the mortar well was plated over to allow the landing of large helicopters on the quarterdeck, she joined the Royal Navy task force in the South Atlantic in the 1982 Falklands War. Bristol led the Bristol group of reinforcement ships south and then joined the carrier battle group, Task Group 317.8. On 22 May she fired two Sea Dart missiles at spurious radar returns caused by interference with similar radars fitted on ships within the group. After the destroyer Coventry was hit and subsequently sunk on 25 May, Bristol with Cardiff and Exeter carried out duties in the air warfare role. When the aircraft carrier Hermes, the flagship, returned to the UK, Bristol took over as flagship until 17 September (with Vice Admiral Derek Reffell aboard as senior-officer-in-theatre), returning to the UK after being relieved by the carrier Illustrious.
  On return to the UK she entered a refit and, in light of the lessons of the conflict, had her light anti aircraft weapons augmented with a pair of twin Oerlikon/BMARC 30 mm GCM-A03 and a pair of single Oerlikon/BMARC 20 mm GAM-B01 guns. Loral-Hycor SRBOC countermeasures launchers were also added to augment the elderly Corvus launchers.
caption: Bristol at Ascension Island with a Chinook helicopter flying overhead in 1982
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