The Royal Navy’s Welsh flagship, HMS Dragon reached a major milestone in her 12 month refit yesterday, emerging from dry dock in Portsmouth Naval Base. Currently seven months into an extensive maintenance period, the ‘flood-up’ evolution saw water surge through the dock gates and the Type 45 Destroyer float on the water for the first time since entering dry dock in October last year. Dragon entered service with the Royal Navy in 2012 and has already completed two demanding deployments to the Middle East and South Atlantic. The refit, which started in July last year, is Dragon’s first major maintenance period since the ship was launched in 2008, and has included substantial maintenance to the state of the art electric propulsion system, as well as upgrades across weapons, sensors and communications systems.