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HMS Atherstone transiting the Bosporus on the way to Istanbul
HMS Hurworth at sea

The Hunt Class are the largest warships ever constructed out of Glass Reinforced Plastic. Although orginally built as dual purpose Minesweepers and Minehunters, the class are currently configured to function only in the Minehunter role. As Minehunters they 'hunt' for mines with a high definition sonar and then destroy them using explosives placed either by the Mine Clearance Divers or by the Sea Fox Mine Disposal System . In addition they are equiped with: a single 30mm gun, two Miniguns and three General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs).  This equipment fit enables the Hunt class to function in a Secondary Role as very potent patrol Craft.

Hunt Class Mine MCMV
Ship Name Pennant No. Ship Name Pennant No.
Atherstone M38 Cattistock M31
Brocklesby M33 Ledbury M30
Chiddingfold M37 Quorn M41
Hurworth M39 Middleton M34
Hunt Class MCMV Statistics
Displacement: 750 tonnes
Length: 60 metres
Beam: 10.5 metres
Draught: 3.4 metres
Speed: 15 knots
Complement: 45
Armament: 1 x 30mm gun, 2 x Miniguns, 3 x General Purpose Machine Guns.
Sonar: 2193 broad band high definition Minehunting Sonar.
Sensors: Type 1007 I band.
Countermeasures: Sea Fox Mine Disposal System.
Propulsion: 2 x Ruston-Paxman deltic 9-58K diesels developing 1900hp 1 Deltic 9-59 diesel for pulse generation and auxiliary drive. 2 shafts + bow thruster.