HMS ''Broadsword'' was the lead ship and first Batch 1 unit of the Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy.

Construction

''Broadsword'' was ordered from Yarrow Shipbuilders on 8 February 1974 and was laid down at Yarrow's

Scotstoun Scotstoun ( gd, Baile an Sgotaich) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Garscadden and Yoker to the west, Victoria Park, Jordanhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde ...

shipyard on 7 February 1975. She was launched on 12 May 1976 and commissioned on 3 May 1979.Prézelin and Baker 1990, p. 711.

Royal Navy service

While on sea trials, ''Broadsword'' was called into service as the command ship during the large rescue operation required after storms struck the

1979 Fastnet race The 1979 Fastnet Race was the 28th Royal Ocean Racing Club's Fastnet Race, a yachting race held generally every two years since 1925 on a 605-mile course from Cowes direct to the Fastnet Rock and then to Plymouth via south of the Isles of Scil ...

''Broadsword'' took part in the 1982

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

. On 25 May 1982, she was paired with HMS ''Coventry'' to draw Argentine aircraft away from the landings at San Carlos. If ''Coventry'''s long range Sea Dart missiles missed, then ''Broadswords shorter range Sea Wolf missile system could engage aircraft (and missiles). Two pairs of Argentine aircraft attacked the ships at low level. ''Coventry'' was not able to achieve a missile lock on the first pair and ''Broadsword'''s Sea Wolf system shut down. ''Broadsword'' was hit by one bomb from the first pair, which bounced up through the helicopter deck, hitting the Westland Lynx helicopter, before exiting and exploding harmlessly. The other pair of aircraft targeted ''Coventry'' which made a turn to reduce her profile—this took her into the line of fire of ''Broadsword'''s Sea Wolf system, preventing ''Broadsword'' from firing on the aircraft. Bombs from the two Argentine Douglas A-4 Skyhawks damaged and sunk the ''Coventry''. ''Broadsword'' subsequently rescued 170 of the sunken ''Coventry's'' crew. She shot down one

IAI Dagger The Israel Aircraft Industries Nesher (Hebrew: נשר, 'griffon vulture', often mistranslated as 'eagle') was the Israeli version of the French Dassault Mirage 5 multirole fighter.Gupta 1997, p. 105. Having sustained aircraft losses during the S ...

of FAA Grupo 6 and shared an Douglas A-4C Skyhawk kill with HMS ''Antelope''s SeaCat, land-based

Rapiers A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impor ...

and Blowpipe

surface to air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

s. Captain G W R Biggs commanded ''Broadsword'' between 10 April 1985 and 15 May 1986 and Commander M W G Kerr who commanded between 27 July 1988 and 18 May 1990 both subsequently became flag officers. In 1993 ''Broadsword'' took part in the naval operation in support of

Operation Grapple (Yugoslavia) Operation Grapple was the codeword used to cover UK defence operations in support of the UN peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia (authorised by UNSCR 776 of September 1992); including the deployment of British forces in Bosnia and C ...

, in the Adriatic Sea. Upon completion on 8 July 1993, a fire broke out in the aft auxiliary machinery room which resulted in the deaths of two on-watch engineers. By July 1994, HMS ''Broadsword'' was serving as the

West Indies Guard Ship Standing Royal Navy deployments is a list of operations and commitments undertaken by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy on a worldwide basis. The following list details these commitments and deployments sorted by region and in alphabetical order. Ro ...

until she returned to the United Kingdom in March 1995 for decommissioning.

Brazilian service

In November 1994, ''Broadsword'' was sold to Brazil alongside her sisters HMS ''Brazen'', HMS ''Brilliant'', and HMS ''Battleaxe'' for £116,000,000. She was official decommissioned from Royal Navy service on 31 March 1995 and entered the Brazilian Navy on 30 June 1995 as ''Greenhalgh''. ''Greenhalgh'' was the first Brazilian navy ship to integrate in a U.S. strike group in July 2008 during a

Composite Training Unit Exercise COMPTUEX, or Composite Training Unit Exercise, is a rehearsal each US Navy Carrier Strike Group performs before departing for deployment. Each ship and aircraft in the battle group trains in its specialty; COMPTUEX brings ships together to project ...

(COMPUTEX) led by USS ''Iwo Jima''. On 10 August 2021, ''Greenhalgh'' was decommissioned from Brazilian service.

References

Publications

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External links

Broadsword Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadsword (F88) Ships built on the River Clyde Falklands War naval ships of the United Kingdom 1976 ships Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy Type 22 frigates of the Brazilian Navy Ship fires Maritime incidents in 1982 Maritime incidents in 1993