Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless cuts through rough weather in the South Atlantic during her deployment to the area.

HMS Dauntless, the second of the T45 Destroyers, joined the Fleet in November 2010, shortly after being the first of class to fire the new Sea Viper missile. Since then she has proved her capability helping to ‘protect’ the USS Carrier Battle Group in Exercise Saxon Warrior as the American units approached the UK in May.

Reversing the tables she then crossed ‘the pond’ in company with the Russian Destroyer Admiral Chabanenko to take part in FRUKUS 2011 – the letters come from France, Russia, UK and US who make up the annual exercise.

While in the US she took the opportunity to find the warmest waters easily reachable without having to go through Suez to test the resilience of the T45 systems in hotter water.

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Photographer: LA(Phot) Wilson Image 45154618.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk

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