HMNZS Waikato (F55)

History
New Zealand
Name	HMNZS Waikato
Namesake	Waikato province of New Zealand
Operator	Royal New Zealand Navy
Builder	Harland and Wolff
Laid down	January 1964
Launched	18 February 1965
Commissioned	September 1966
Decommissioned	1998
Refit	Major modernisation refit 1986–88
Homeport	Tauranga, New Zealand, but based out of Devonport Naval Base, Auckland
Identification	F55
Nickname(s)	"The Mighty Y"
Honours and awards	Armilla Patrol - 1982 Bougainville - Operation Big Talk 1990
Fate	Sunk on 18 December 2000 as an artificial reef
General characteristics
Class and type	Leander-class frigate
Displacement	2,450 tons standard 3,200 tons full load
Length	372 ft (113 m)
Beam	41 ft (12 m)
Draught	19 ft (6 m)
Propulsion	2 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers delivering steam to 2 × English Electric geared steam turbines, 30,000 shp to 2 shafts
Speed	27 knots (50 km/h)
Range	4,600 nautical miles (8,520 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement	18 officers, 248 sailors
Sensors and processing systems	Type 965 air search radar. 993 main search radar. 1006 Navigational Radar
Armament	2 × 4.5 in (114 mm) guns in twin Mk6 mounting 1 × quadruple Sea Cat SAM launcher 2 × Mark 32 torpedo tubes for Mark 46 torpedoes 4 × M2 Browning machine guns.
Aircraft carried	Originally a Wasp helicopter, later a Kaman SH-2G

HMNZS Waikato (F55) was a Leander Batch 2TA frigate of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). She was one of two Leanders built for the RNZN, the other being the Batch 3 HMNZS Canterbury. These two New Zealand ships relieved British ships of the Armilla patrol during the Falklands conflict, freeing British ships for deployment.