HMS Brilliant (F90)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	25 March 1977
Launched:	15 December 1978
Commissioned:	15 May 1981
Decommissioned:	1996
Fate:	Sold to Brazil 31 August 1996.
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	5300 t
Length:	148.1 m
Beam:	14.8 m
Draught:
Propulsion:
Speed:	33 km/h cruise, 56 km/h sprint
Range:
Complement:	250
Armament:	2 x 6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM Launchers, 4 x 1 Exocet SSM Launchers, 2 x 40mm Bofors AA guns
Aircraft:	Lynx MK 8 helicopter
Motto:

HMS Brilliant (F90) was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy.

She was part of the Task Force that took part in the Falklands War. There, her two helicopters were involved in attacking the Argentine submarine Santa Fe. She was the first Royal Navy warship to fire the Seawolf missile in anger when, on 12 May 1982, she shot down three aircraft. On 21 May HMS Brilliant came under Argentine air attack outside San Carlos Water and was slightly damaged by cannon fire. She rescued 24 survivors from Atlantic Conveyor on 25 May.

Brilliant starred in a BBC documentary series called HMS Brilliant in the early 1990s. She decommissioned in 1996 and was sold to the Brazilian Navy on 31 August 1996 and renamed Dodsworth, after a Brasilian politician.[[1]]

The silhouette of HMS Brilliant is to be found, along with the date May 21, painted on the side of Argentine Air Force Dassault Mirage 5/IAI Finger serial number C-412. Also painted on C-412 is the silhouette of HMS Arrow and the date May 1. These kill markings probably has to do with the damage both ships suffered in the Falklands War, HMS Arrow being slightly damaged by cannon fire May 1 1982 and HMS Brilliant also being slightly damaged by cannon fire, this on May 21. The last time the Mirage 5 with said kill markings was spotted was during the November 2005 multi-national Exercise Ceibo in Argentina

See HMS Brilliant for other ships of the same name.