HMS
Arrow. The Type 21 class frigates were the first all gas turbine ships in the Royal Navy. Designed as a private venture by yacht maker Vosper Thornycroft, the ships were beloved by their crews for their speed and comfortable accommodations. However, not being designed by the Navy and instead being an up-sizing of an existing export ship hull, the Type 21s had very little margin for growth. This resulted in them receiving neither a towed array or Sea Wolf, as a replacement for the utterly inadequate Seacat. Their basic armament was a 4.5 inch Mark 8 gun, a Seacat quad launcher (GWS-24), and a pair of 20mm Oerlikon cannons, plus GPMGs. Some were fitted with triple lightweight torpedo tubes aft, and others received an additional pair of Oerlikons on the flight deck next to the hangar. The ships, with the exception of
Antelope, did receive an upgrade in the form of four Exocet missile launchers forwards. This displaced the Corvus countermeasures launchers from their original place forward of the bridge to the 02 level amidships.
All but the lead ship,
Amazon, fought in the Falklands campaign.
Arrow distinguished herself as the first British ship to bombard the islands, and also as the first ship to take a casualty: a sailor was injured by shrapnel from a 30mm strafing run.
Arrow was the first ship to come to the aid of
Sheffield after she was hit. Two of her sisters would perish, HMS
Antelope by the detonation of an unexploded bomb, and
Ardent by a withering combination of bombs and rockets that impacted her stern. During the Battle of Goose Green,
Arrow provided naval gunfire support for 2 Para until well after daylight had broken and she was ordered to withdraw. After the war, the ships continued to serve the Royal Navy but their lack of room for upgrades ultimately saw them sold to Pakistan. In Pakistani service,
Arrow was renamed
Khaibar.