HMS Battleaxe (F89)

HMS Battleaxe
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Battleaxe
Operator:	Royal Navy
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down:	4 February 1976
Launched:	18 May 1977
Commissioned:	28 March 1980
Decommissioned:	30 August 1996
Identification:	Pennant number: F89
Fate:	Sold to Brazil 30 April 1997
Brazil
Name:	Rademaker
Operator:	Brazilian Navy
Identification:	Pennant number: F49
General characteristics
Class & type:	Type 22 frigate
Displacement:	4,400 tons
Length:	131.2 m (430 ft)
Beam:	14.8 m (49 ft)
Draught:	6.1 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, COGOG 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B boost gas turbines (54,600 shp) 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) cruise 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) top speed
Complement:	222
Armament:	2 × 2× torpedo tubes for Mk-46 torpedoes 2 × 6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM launchers 4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers 2 × 40 mm Bofors AA guns 2 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Aircraft carried:	2 × Lynx MK 8 helicopters

HMS Battleaxe was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 30 April 1997 and renamed Rademaker.

NAe Rademaker was involved in an unfortunate incident on 29 November 2004, during the annual FRATERNO naval exercise with ships of the Argentinian Navy. While conducting gunnery practice shots against target drones, a technical failure of her automatic weapons system made the Argentinian frigate ARA Sarandi fire on the Brazilian frigate Rademaker, causing injuries to four Brazilian crewmen and an Argentine naval observer, as well as moderate damage to NAe Rademaker.

HMS Battleaxe was featured in Tom Clancy's novel Red Storm Rising.

BNS Rademaker, ex-HMS Battleaxe

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. OCLC 67375475.