HMS Cardiff (D108)

HMS Cardiff (D108)

HMS Cardiff was a British Type 42 destroyer and the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named in honour of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff. Construction was started by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and completed by Swan Hunter in Tyne and Wear. Cardiff was launched on 22 February 1974.

During her career, Cardiff served in the Falklands War, where she shot down the last Argentine aircraft of the conflict and accepted the surrender of a 700-strong garrison in the settlement of Port Howard. During the 1991 Gulf War, her Lynx helicopter sank two Iraqi minesweepers. She later participated in the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq as part of the Royal Navy's constant Armilla patrol; Cardiff thwarted attempts to smuggle oil out of the country, but was not involved in the actual invasion.

Cardiff was decommissioned in July 2005, having earned two battle honours for service in the Falklands and Gulf wars. She was sent to Turkey for scrapping despite calls by former servicemen for her to be preserved as a museum ship and local tourist attraction in Cardiff.