HMS Ledbury (M30)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Ledbury.

HMS Ledbury (M30)
HMS Ledbury in Portsmouth 2007
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Ledbury
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	31 March 1977
Builder:	Vosper Thornycroft
Launched:	December 1979
Sponsored by:	Lady Elizabeth Berthan
Commissioned:	11 June 1981
Homeport:	Portsmouth
Identification:	Pennant number: M30
Honours and awards:	Malta(1942) Arctic(1942-3) Sicily(1943) Salerno(1943) Adriatic(1944) Aegean(1944) Kuwait(1991) Al Faw(2003)
Status:	in active service, as of 2022
General characteristics
Class & type:	Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel
Displacement:	750 tons
Length:	60 m
Beam:	9.8 m
Draught:	2.2 m
Propulsion:	2 shaft Napier Deltic diesel, 3,540 shp
Speed:	15 knots
Boats & landing craft carried:	2 x Gemini
Complement:	43 (5 Officers, 9 Senior Ratings, 29 Junior Ratings)
Sensors and processing systems:	Sonar Type 2193, Radar Type 1007
Armament:	30mm automatic small calibre gun 2 × Mk44 minigun 3 × 7.62mm general purpose machine guns Mine counter measures equipment: SeaFox mine disposal system Diver-placed explosive charges

HMS Ledbury, the third ship of the name, is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched on December 1979 and commissioned on 11 June 1981, the second ship of her class. She cost £65 million at time of building, which was at the time the most expensive cost-per-metre for any class of ship built by the Royal Navy. Most of this cost went into the research and development of Ledbury's glass reinforced plastic hull.

She is attached to the Second Mine Countermeasures Squadron, based in Portsmouth. Ledbury underwent a docking maintenance period, commencing in June 2009, to fit the new Seafox mine disposal equipment. This new equipment (replacing the French built PAP RCMDS) is a significant improvement in both mine detection and disposal technology.^{[citation needed]}