HMS ''Alacrity'' was a

Type 21 frigate The Type 21 frigate, or ''Amazon''-class frigate, was a British Royal Navy general-purpose escort that was designed in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s. Development In the mid-1960s, the Royal Na ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. ''Alacrity'' was active during the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

of 1982, where she sank a supply ship, survived Exocet-missile attacks and rescued men from the ''

Atlantic Conveyor ''Atlantic Conveyor'' was a British merchant navy ship, registered in Liverpool, that was requisitioned during the Falklands War. She was hit on 25 May 1982 by two Argentine air-launched AM39 Exocet missiles, killing 12 sailors. ''Atlantic ...

''. She was transferred to Pakistan on 1 March 1994 and renamed PNS ''Badr''.

Background

Built by

Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also o ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland, she was completed with

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from Warship, surface vessels, Submarine, submarines, Helicopter, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guil ...

launchers in 'B' position.

Royal Navy service

1977–1981

In 1977, ''Alacrity'' participated in the Fleet Review of the Royal Navy at

Spithead Spithead is an eastern area of the Solent and a roadstead for vessels off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast, with the Isle of Wight lying to the south-west. Spithead and the ch ...

to celebrate HM the Queen's Silver Jubilee. In 1980, "Alacrity" participated in a Far-East deployment. During a visit to Shanghai, she was the first British warship to enter the Yangtse River since HMS Amethyst escaped in 1949.

Falklands War

''Alacrity'' participated in the

, departing Devonport on 5 April 1982 and captained by Commander Christopher Craig. ''A''n Argentine bomb slightly damaged ''Alacrity'' on 1 May 1982. On the night of 10–11 May 1982, ''Alacrity'' was tasked to establish if the Argentines had mined the north entrance of

Falkland Sound The Falkland Sound () is a sea strait in the Falkland Islands. Running southwest-northeast, it separates West and East Falkland. Name The sound was named by John Strong in 1690 for Viscount Falkland, the name only later being applied to th ...

. While approaching Swan Islands, she engaged and sank the 3000-ton Argentine supply ship ARA ''Isla de los Estados'' with her 4.5-inch gun. The Argentine transport blew up after a hit ignited her cargo of

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by Gas turbine, gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for ...

and ammunition. Fifteen crew members and seven servicemen (from all three armed forces and the

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

) were killed, there were only two survivors. As ''Alacrity'' left the channel just before dawn, her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

was waiting to accompany her back to the Task Force, when the Argentine submarine, , captained by Fernando Azcueta, fired two SST-4 torpedoes at a range of 5000 yards. One didn't leave its tube, the other missed and was heard to detonate after hitting the sea bottom. On 25 May, ''Alacrity'' sustained damage to her bow while rescuing survivors from the , which two Exocet missiles had struck.

1982–1994

As with the other surviving Type 21 frigates, Alacrity's hull was cracking by the mid-1980s. She was refitted, and a steel plate was welded down each side of the ship. In 1989, while deployed as a West Indies guard ship, ''Alacrity'' was tasked for humanitarian relief on the island of Montserrat in the British West Indies after the island suffered devastation in the wake of

Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a powerful tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread destruction across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. The eleventh tropical cyclone, eighth Tropical cyclone naming, named st ...

. The ship's Lynx helicopter was the sole means of transporting aid ashore as the port was destroyed.

Pakistan Navy service

''Alacrity'' was decommissioned and transferred to

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

on 1 March 1994, being renamed ''Badr''. Exocet was not transferred to Pakistan, and ''Badr'' had her obsolete Sea Cat launcher removed and replaced with a Phalanx CIWS.

Signaal Thales Nederland B.V. (formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V. or in short Signaal) is a subsidiary of the French multinational company Thales Group based in the Netherlands. The firm was founded as ''NV Hazemeyer's Fabriek van Signaalapparaten ...

DA08 air search radar replaced the Type 992 and

SRBOC The BAE Systems Mark 36 Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeasures Chaff and Decoy Launching System (abbreviated as SRBOC or "Super-arboc") is an American short-range decoy launching system (DLS) that launches radar or infrared decoys from naval v ...

chaff launchers, and new 20 mm and additional 30 mm guns were fitted. Between 11 and 21 May 2008, ''Badr'' participated in Exercise Inspired Union, a multi-national

North Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

exercise. Other Pakistani warships included the frigate ''Shah Jahan'', the replenishment tanker ''Nasr'', the Pakistan Air Force explosive ordnance disposal team, and the American destroyers and . ''Badr'' was decommissioned in April 2013 by the

Pakistan Navy The Pakistan Navy (PN) (; ''romanized'': Pākistān Bahrí'a; ) is the naval warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Chief of the Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Com ...

References

Publications

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alacrity (F174) Type 21 frigates Falklands War naval ships of the United Kingdom 1974 ships