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LONDON (BNS): The Royal Navy's newest Type 45 destroyer, HMS Defender, will undergo sea trials before being declared ready for operations in 2013, the UK MoD has said.

The destroyer sailed in to her new home at Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth on Wednesday.

HMS Defender is the fifth of six Type 45 warships built for the Royal Navy, and was launched at the BAE Systems' Govan yard in Glasgow in October 2009.

The 7,500-tonne destroyer is armed with the Sea Viper missile defence system. The Type 45s will provide the backbone of the UK's naval air defences for the next 30 years and beyond.

The destroyers will be capable of carrying out a wide range of operations, including anti-piracy and anti-smuggling activities, disaster relief work and surveillance operations as well as high intensity war fighting.

The Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, Peter Luff, said, "This latest addition to our fleet of state-of-the-art destroyers marks the remarkable progress being made on the Type 45 programme.

"HMS Defender, together with her five sister vessels, will form a formidable fleet, and ensure that the Royal Navy remains a powerful maritime force on the world stage."