Fort Towson

Regina Maria (F222) is a Type 22 frigate of the Romanian Naval Forces, formerly a Royal Navy ship named HMS London (F95). It is named after Queen Marie of Romania, wife of King Ferdinand I of Romania.

Service

HMS London was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy, originally named Bloodhound but renamed London at the request of the Lord Mayor of London.

She was flagship of the Royal Navy task force during the 1991 Gulf War.

She was decommissioned on 14 January 1999 and sold to the Romanian Navy on 14 January 2003, being commissioned as Regina Maria on 21 April 2005. Before the sale the Sea Wolf and Exocet missile systems were removed, and the only armament the ship had when delivered was two 30 mm BMARC cannons and two three-tube anti-submarine torpedo launchers. The Romanian Navy had a 76 mm OTO-Melara gun system fitted forward where the Exocets had been mounted, but no missile systems or additional weapons have been fitted. There has since been some controversy over the price for which Romania purchased the ship.^[1]

Romanian authorities are currently working in collaboration with the Romanian COMOTI institute [ro] to replace two of the Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines with two ST40M turbine engines designed at COMOTI.^[2]

Commanding officers

Notable commanding officers include Iain Henderson (1990-1991), Mark Stanhope (1991-1992) and Timothy McClement (1992-1994).

Gallery

• 
  HMS London
• 
  HMS London (F95) docked in port during Operation Desert Shield.
• 
  Romanian frigate Regina Maria at the Trafalgar 200th Anniversary.
• 
  Regina Maria during exercise Sea Breeze 2016.

See also

• NMS Regina Maria (Regele Ferdinand-class destroyer), a World War II-era namesake

References

Publications

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.