HS KIMON (F-601)

Crest

The ship’s crest features an Athenian helmet, as worn by General Kimon. Behind it are depicted an ancient trireme and HS KIMON, set against a background of sky and a wavy sea. The sea is illustrated with nine blue and white waves, exactly like those on the national flag.
The theme, beyond the design similarity of the reversed bow between the trireme and HS KIMON, symbolically refers to the qualitative superiority of these vessels over their contemporaries, combined with the timeless prominence of Greece’s seafaring admirals, who have ensured the nation’s naval supremacy in Greek seas from antiquity to the present day.

Technical Characteristics

Dimensions

121.6 / 17.7 / 6.2 meters

Displacement

4,603 tons

Crew

149 (with accommodation capacity)

Speed

27.5 knots

Propulsion

CODAD (Combined Diesel and Diesel), four Main MTU Diesel Engines

Armament

1 × 76/62 mm OTO MELARA SUPER RAPIDO gun
8 × Exocet surface-to-surface missiles
32 × Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles
2 × twin torpedo launchers
1 × RAM close-in weapon system
2 × Lionfish 20 mm remote weapon systems Electronic warfare and anti-submarine decoy launchers
Capable of carrying 1 helicopter (type SH70B(6) or MH60R) and 2 Schiebel S100 UAVs

History

HS KIMON is the second warship of the Hellenic Navy to bear this name. The first was a Charles F. Adams-class destroyer with hull number D-218, formerly USS SEMMES. This vessel was built at Avondale Marine Ways Inc., launched on May 20, 1961, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on December 10, 1962.

Under the framework of the U.S.–Greece defense agreement (July 8, 1990), four ships of this class (KIMON, NEARCHOS, FORMION, and THEMISTOKLES) were provided on loan. The Greek flag was raised on September 12, 1991, with Commander Dimitrios Kallergis HN as the first Commanding Officer. The ship arrived in Greece on May 27, 1992. She was decommissioned in 2004.

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