Career
Ordered:	8 August 1980
Laid down:	[18 October]] 1979
Launched:	29 October 1980
Commissioned:	27 October 1981
Decommissioned:
Fate:	In service
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,427 tonnes
Length:	81 m (266 ft)
Beam:	11.5 m (37 ft)
Draught:	3.6 m (11 ft)
Propulsion:	2 x Ruston 12RKC 5640 hp (4.2 MW) diesels, 2 shafts
Speed:	18 knot (33 km/h) max, 12 knot (22 km/h) cruise
Range:
Complement:	45 (Temporary accommodation for an additional twenty-five Royal Marines)
Armament:	30 mm Cannon, 4 x General Purpose Machine Guns
Aircraft:	One Lynx or Westland Sea King
Motto:

The second HMS Leeds Castle is a Castle-class patrol ship built by Hall Russell Co. Ltd of Aberdeen, Scotland. Her sister-ship is HMS Dumbarton Castle, which was commissioned in 1982. Leeds Castle was launched in October 1980 and commissioned into the Royal Navy the following August. She was involved in the 1982 Falklands War, operating between the British territories of Ascension Island, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands as a dispatch vessel.

Since that conflict, the Leeds Castle has spent much time performing fishery protection duties around the United Kingdom, as-well as being used as a guard-ship in the Falkland Islands. In 2000, Leeds Castle underwent an eight-month refit, returning to the fleet in early 2001.

She is currently serving as the Falkland Islands Patrol Vessel, a deployment that will encompass all of the South Atlantic Overseas Territories . This deployment is expected to last three years. HMS Glasgow, HMS Endurance and RFA Gold Rover are also currently in the area as of March 2004. Leeds Castle will remain in the area throughout her deployment but the crew will be rotated every six months.

See HMS Leeds Castle for other ships of the name.