HMS Brilliant (F90)

HMS Brilliant was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy.

Royal Navy Service
Brilliant was part of the Task Force that took part in the Falklands War, with Captain John Coward in command. During the war her two helicopters were involved in unsuccessful attacking the Argentine submarine Santa Fe, and she was the first Royal Navy warship to fire the Sea Wolf missile in action when, on 12 May 1982, she shot down three A-4 Skyhawks. On 21 May HMS Brilliant came under Argentine air attack outside San Carlos Water and was slightly damaged by cannon fire. On 23 May she joined HMS Yarmouth in the chase of the Argentinian supply ship ARA Monsunen. She rescued 24 survivors from Atlantic Conveyor on 25 May. Brilliant had sailed south with a pair of WE.177A nuclear depth charges on board. To avoid complications arising from the Treaty of Tlatelolco, these were unloaded to RFA Fort Austin on 16 April 1982.

Brilliant starred in a BBC documentary series called HMS Brilliant in the early 1990s. In October 1990 she saw the first members of the Women's Royal Naval Service to serve officially on an operational warship.

Brazilian Navy Service
She decommissioned from Royal Navy service in 1996 and was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 31 August 1996 and renamed Dodsworth.

F47 Dodsworth was sold for scrap and broken up at Aliağa, Turkey, during July 2012.

The silhouette of HMS Brilliant is painted, with the date 21 May, on the side of Argentine Air Force IAI Finger serial number C-412. Also painted on C-412 is the silhouette of HMS Arrow and the date 1 May. These kill markings (without crossing) have to do with damage to both ships in the Falklands War, HMS Arrow being slightly damaged by cannon fire 1 May 1982 and HMS Brilliant also being slightly damaged by cannon fire on 21 May. Finger's markings were painted soon after the war; they were seen during the November 2005 multi-national Exercise Ceibo in Argentina, and still there.

Publications



 * AirForces Monthly Magazine February 2006, page 61.