Sandown-class minehunter

The "Sandown" class is a class of fifteen minehunters built primarily for the Royal Navy by Vosper Thornycroft. The "Sandown" class also serve with the Royal Saudi Navy and the Estonian Navy. The first vessel was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 9 June 1989 and all the British ships are named after coastal towns and cities. They have a secondary role as offshore patrol vessels.
Development.
These small () fibreglass vessels are single role mine hunters (SRMH) rather than minesweepers. Twelve ships were built for the Royal Navy and three ships were exported to Saudi Arabia. Three Royal Navy vessels were decommissioned following the Strategic Defence Review in 2003; "Sandown" (January 2005), "Inverness" (April 2005) and "Bridport" (July 2004). A further ship, "Cromer", was decommissioned and transferred to a training role at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 2001 as "Hindostan".
The three decommissioned vessels were sold to Estonia in September 2006. They were re-equipped with TCS (Tactical Control System) and the Atlas Elektronik Seafox ROV for mine disposal. The sonar system was also updated. The first ship (ex-"Sandown"), delivered in 2007, has been named , the second (ex-"Inverness"), was delivered in 2008 and named and the last (ex-"Bridport") named in 2009.
The 2021 defence white paper announced that all mine countermeasures vessels in the Royal Navy would be retired during the 2020s and replaced by automated systems. It was indicated that the remaining Sandown-class ships would be retired first.