HMS Hampshire (D06)

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HMS Hampshire was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Laid down, in March 1959 a couple of weeks behind the class leader Devonshire, she was classifed as a Guided Missile destroyer, as the Sea Lords regarded the concept of the Cruiser and big gun ship as discredited by the percieved failure of the Tiger class and the obsolesence of the heavy gun. The description of Guided Missile Destroyer seemed more likely to win approval from the Treasury and Government for an adequate number of warships the size of small cruisers which could play many traditional cruiser flagship and command functions but had armour around neither its gun or missile magazine. In the late 1960's there were plans to upgrade Hampshire and sister destroyers armed with Seaslug Mk 1 but this was rejected because of the amount of the time the ships would be out of the operational fleet. She was decommissioned in 1976 at a time the Labour Government was making severe defence cuts under pressure from the IMF. and cannibalised for spares to service her sister ships. Hampshire was sold for scrap in 1979.