Ministry of Defence’s Disposal Services Authority Comes to the Fore – The Scottish media, not surprisingly really, has a bee in its bonnet about the forthcoming sail of the last of the Type 42 Destroyers in service.   This is as a result of the replacement programme (the Type 45 Destroyers).   As long ago in November 1999 the prime contravtors for the Type 45 project were announced and with all the ships being built in Scotland.   The MoD said it was planning to sell the two vessels to another government, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh suggested as potential buyers, with experts estimating the value of the destroyers as £20 million.   The ships are being sold as part of the plans outlined in the SDSR 2010 and could have come as no shock to any media observer.

The concern of course is that one of the two remaining Type 42 Destroyers is named EDINBURGH (and the other is YORK) and both are on the Disposal Services Authorities website as for sale.   The apparent concern is that that the name “Edinburgh” could vanish from the Navy List for good.    There have been ships carrying the name EDINBURGH since the Acts of Union in 1707, when the two Parliaments approved the Union which some are set to dissolve.

By comparison the name LONDON has laid dormant since 1999 when the ship (a Type 22 Frigate) was laid up (and subsequently sold out of service in 2002 to Romania); and even then the ship with that name was in fact a rename, having originally intended to be named BLOODHOUND.   Maybe the Scottish Government should buy the current EDINBURGH and preserve the Type 42 as part of the Scottish shipbuilding heritage.