Royal Navy warship heads for repairs after four years in port

HMS Daring was towed out of Portsmouth after four years in port

A £1bn Royal Navy warship has been towed from its home base for repairs after spending four years in port.

Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring is travelling from Portsmouth to Birkenhead for a multi-million pound engine refit.

The ship has been undergoing maintenance since returning in May 2017 from a nine-month Gulf deployment.

In July, it emerged that five of the UK's six Type 45 destroyers were out of action because of technical issues.

'Operationally unacceptable'

Defence Minister Jeremy Quin said HMS Daring and HMS Duncan were undergoing "deep maintenance".

HMS Diamond and HMS Dragon were also being repaired while HMS Defender was on deployment, the minister's written parliamentary answer said.

HMS Dauntless was the first of the six destroyers to undergo the engine refit and would take part in sea trials this year, he added.

Defence Select Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood MP suggested at the time it was "operationally unacceptable that the Royal Navy's destroyer availability had been reduced to a single ship".

Mr Quin told the committee: "It's something I'm very concerned about. I've actually spent some time on Duncan talking to the ship's company regarding the frustrations of long periods of deep maintenance."

The work on HMS Daring is due to be completed by 2023

In 2016, a Defence Select Committee report attacked the MoD for "extraordinary mistakes" in the Type 45 destroyers' design, after it emerged they had faulty engines unable to operate continuously in warm waters.

A serving Royal Navy officer wrote that "total electric failures are common" on the ships, according to an email seen by the BBC at the time.

The work on HMS Daring is expected to be completed at the Cammell Laird shipyard by 2023.

BAE Systems previously said the Power Improvement Programme involved replacing two existing diesel generators with three new ones and modifying the high voltage system on each ship.

All six Type 45 destroyers are due to have the upgrade by the mid-2020s.