Type 45 Destroyer Update – the DRAGON will commission this month, the DEFENDER has now “sailed” through second sea trials and is getting closer to being taken in to operational service after completing these trials off Scotland where the ship testing combat systems and sensors ahead of her impending handover to the Royal Navy.    The DEFENDER is now in the final weeks of trials and tests on the Clyde and is due to be declared operational in early 2013, by which time the final ship in the Type 45 programme, DUNCAN will have made a debut at sea and is due to sail later this year on a first series of trials.