A ship which represented the first of a new breed of vessel for the modern Royal Navy, HMS Devonshire (D02) was the first of the Navy's new County-class Destroyers, which were designed around the Seaslug surface to air missile system. A fleet defender designed to knock out high flying enemy aircraft before they could release their stand-off anti-shipping munitions, Devonshire was launched in June 1960 and commissioned in November 1962 and was the first vessel of her type to enter Royal Navy service and the first operational Royal Navy ship to fire the Seaslug missile. The missile was only used in action once and this was when HMS Antrim fired Seaslugs during the Falklands War, but it has to be said with somewhat disappointing results.
Decommissioned in 1978, she would spend the next six years languishing in Portsmouth harbour, as a proposed sale to the Egyptian Navy fell through. For such a notable ship, she would meet a rather ignominious end as a target ship, sunk by HMS Splendid in the North Atlantic on 17th July 1984, only days after serving as a floating target during Sea-Eagle anti-ship missile trials.
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