The turbines developed a total of 34,000 shaft horsepower (25,000 kW) and gave a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph).

The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[4] Their main armament consisted of four QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns in single mounts, in two superfiring pairs in front of the bridge and aft of the superstructure.

She was laid down at their Greenock, Scotland, shipyard on 30 July 1928, and launched on 26 June 1929,[6] as the seventh ship of the name to serve in the RN.

[7] The ship was completed on 14 April 1930[6] at a cost of £226,439 excluding items supplied by the Admiralty such as guns, ammunition and communications equipment.

[3] Ardent was commissioned at HM Dockyard, Chatham on 23 April and was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet after working up, departing on 19 May.

Ardent was then assigned as the Devonport emergency destroyer; on 24 September her crew was brought up to strength during the Munich crisis.

On 13 April, the ship joined the escort of Convoy NP1, on passage to Norway with troops for the planned landings at Narvik.

On the night of 29/30 April, Ardent and the Polish destroyer Błyskawica ferried 150 men of the Scots Guards to Bodø.

Three days later, she escorted the troopship SS Ulster Prince as she took troops to the Faroe Islands to replace the Royal Marines that had been landed there in April as part of Operation Valentine and arrived back in Greenock on the 29th.

On 31 May, the ship and the destroyers Acasta, Acheron, Highlander and Diana escorted the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Glorious from the Clyde to the Norwegian coast to carry out air operations in support of the evacuation of Allied forces from Norway in Operation Alphabet.

The destroyer was engaged by the 15-centimetre (5.9 in) secondary armament, mostly by Scharnhorst, while both ships fired at Glorious with their main batteries.