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BNS Sangu Offshore Patrol Vessel

Seven Island class vessels (all named after British islands) were launched in the mid to late 1970s as a result of the 'Cod Wars' with Iceland. It was found that the use of frigates in a confrontational fishery protection role was less than ideal, so purpose-built vessels designed on ocean-going trawlers were ordered. First off the slipway was HMS Jersey in 1976, followed by Guernsey, Orkney, Shetland, Lindisfarne, Alderney and Anglesey. For the next three decades they policed the UK's 200-mile fishery limits and protected offshore energy assets.

Since their introduction into service, the Island class vessels have been the back-bone of the Fishery Protection Squadron and have widely put the RN into the public eye, both at home and abroad. They were at the front-line of patrolling the UK's 200-mile limit and have offered a reassuring presence to both fellow sea-farers and the offshore installations around the UK's coast.

The Island-class fishery protection vessels were intended to have ship life of about 30 years in Royal Navy Service. Critics said these boats were built in the 1970s and were rust buckets. Representatives of the Bangladesh Navy accepted two patrol vessels from the British Royal navy at Portsmouth on 30 January 2004. The colorful military ceremony took place in the presence of a large number of invited guests, both Bangladeshis and Britons, with Bangladesh High Commissioner to Britain Mofazzal Karim as the chief guest. The offshore patrol vessels, now named BNS Turag and BNS Sangu, were the last two of five such ships bought from the Royal Navy.