Name HMS Coventry Laid down 29 March 1984 Decommissioned 17 January 2002 Construction started 29 March 1984 Length 146 m | Operator Royal Navy Commissioned 14 October 1988 Identification Pennant number F98 Launched 8 April 1986 Builder Swan Hunter | |
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HMS Coventry was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally intended to be named Boadicea but was named Coventry in honour of the previous Coventry, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. Following service in the Royal Navy she was sold to the Romanian Navy in 2003.
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Royal Navy
Between 1990 and 1996 Coventry was the leader of the 1st Frigate Squadron.
Romanian Navy
She was purchased from the United Kingdom by the Romanian Navy on 14 January 2003, and renamed Regele Ferdinand (King Ferdinand) after Ferdinand I of Romania. The ship was handed over to Romania on 19 August 2004, and underwent sea trials at the same time. Regele Ferdinand was commissioned into the Romanian Navy on 9 September 2004 with the pennant number F221, and is the current flagship of the Romanian Navy. There has since been some controversy over the price at which she was bought.
On 22 March 2011, President of Romania Traian Băsescu said, after a CSAT meeting, that Romania will send the frigate Regele Ferdinand with 205 mariners and two officers on board to enforce an arms embargo in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the 2011 military intervention in Libya - Operation Unified Protector. During their run in the NATO naval group acting on Operation Unified Protector - 2011, the frigate has traveled over 17,400 nautical miles and carried out around 770 specific tasks.
Since entry into service of the Romanian Navy, Regele Ferdinand has performed a series of tasks among which the most important are deployments to Operation Active Endeavour in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea, the exercise in Bulgaria "Breeze -CertExam" 2007, 2008, the exercise "Noble Midas" in Croatia in 2007 and 2008 in Italy.
Since 13 September 2012 Regele Ferdinand has participated in Operation Atalanta. The ship embarked naval commandos of Grupul Naval de Forțe pentru Operații Speciale (GNFOS).
In August 2014, Regele Ferdinand sailed alongside Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 Task Unit 2 which operated in the Black Sea as part of Exercise Sea Breeze.