Romanian frigate Regele Ferdinand

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Coventry.

Regele Ferdinand (F221) is a Type 22 frigate of the Romanian Naval Forces, formerly a Royal Navy ship named HMS Coventry (F98). She was originally intended to be named Boadicea but was named Coventry in honour of the previous Coventry, a Type 42 destroyer sunk in the Falklands War. Following service in the Royal Navy she was sold to the Romanian Navy in 2003.

Regele Ferdinand, the flagship of the Romanian Navy
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Coventry
Namesake	HMS Coventry (D118)
Builder	Swan Hunter
Laid down	29 March 1984
Launched	8 April 1986
Commissioned	14 October 1988
Decommissioned	17 January 2002
Identification	Pennant number: F98
Fate	Sold to Romania on 14 January 2003
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Romania
Name	Regele Ferdinand
Namesake	King Ferdinand of Romania
Acquired	14 January 2003
Commissioned	9 September 2004
Identification	Pennant number: F221 MMSI number: 264800090 MarineTraffic ID: 5799671 Callsign:YQYM
Status	In active service
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General characteristics (as HMS Coventry)
Class and type	Type 22 frigate
Displacement	4,800 tons
Length	146.5 m (481 ft)
Beam	14.8 m (49 ft)
Draught	6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion	2-shaft COGOG 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines (54,000 shp / 40 MW) 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp / 7.2 MW)
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (cruise) 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (max)
Range	8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi)
Complement	273
Armament	2 × 6 GWS25 Sea Wolf SAM launchers 4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers 2 × Twin 30 mm AA guns 2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns 4 × 7.62 mm GPMGs
Aircraft carried	2 × Lynx MK 8 helicopters
General characteristics (as Regele Ferdinand)
Class and type	Type 22 frigate
Displacement	5,300 tons
Length	148.1 m (486 ft)
Beam	14.8 m (49 ft)
Draught	6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion	2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines (54,000 shp / 40 MW) 2 × Pratt & Whitney ST40M turbine engines
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (cruise) 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) (max)
Range	4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km; 5,200 mi)
Complement	250
Armament	76/62 Oto Melara Super-Rapid gun
Aircraft carried	IAR-330 Puma Naval

Operational Service

Royal Navy

Between 1990 and 1996 Coventry was the leader of the 1st Frigate Squadron. The ship received the freedom of the city of Coventry in 1988.^[1]

Romanian Navy

Regele Ferdinand in 2005

For other ships with the same name, see Romanian ship Regele Ferdinand.

She was purchased from the United Kingdom by the Romanian Navy on 14 January 2003, and renamed Regele Ferdinand (King Ferdinand) after Ferdinand I of Romania. The ship was handed over to Romania on 19 August 2004, and underwent sea trials at the same time. Regele Ferdinand was commissioned into the Romanian Navy on 9 September 2004 with the pennant number F221, and is the current flagship of the Romanian Navy. There has since been some controversy over the price at which she was bought.^[2]

On 22 March 2011, President of Romania Traian Băsescu said, after a CSAT meeting, that Romania will send the frigate Regele Ferdinand with 205 mariners and two officers on board to enforce an arms embargo in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the 2011 military intervention in Libya - Operation Unified Protector.^[3] During their run in the NATO naval group acting on Operation Unified Protector - 2011, the frigate has traveled over 17,400 nautical miles (32,200 km) and carried out around 770 specific tasks.^[4]

Since entry into service of the Romanian Navy, Regele Ferdinand has performed a series of tasks among which the most important are deployments to Operation Active Endeavour in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea, the exercise in Bulgaria "Breeze -CertExam" 2007, 2008, the exercise "Noble Midas" in Croatia in 2007 and 2008 in Italy.^[4]

Since 13 September 2012 Regele Ferdinand has participated in Operation Atalanta. The ship embarked naval commandos of Grupul Naval de Forțe pentru Operații Speciale (GNFOS).^[5]

In August 2014, Regele Ferdinand sailed alongside Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 Task Unit 2 which operated in the Black Sea as part of Exercise Sea Breeze.^[6]

In July 2019, the Romanian authorities announced the selection of Naval Group and its partner Santierul Naval Constanta (SNC) for the programme to build four new Gowind multi-mission corvettes and to modernise the T22 frigates.

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.^[7]

While the ship type was designed to employ both Sea Wolf and Exocet missiles, as of 2025 Romania does not possess these two types of missiles.

Gallery

• 
  HMS Coventry (F98), conducts an underway replenishment while on station in the Persian Gulf.
• 
  The Romanian Navy frigate Regele Ferdinand (F221) approaches USS Carney (DDG-64) to conduct replenishment-at-sea training in the Black Sea 28 Oct. 2016.
• 
  Navy helicopter landing on Regele Ferdinand.

See also

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