She also fired star shells through the night to illuminate pro-Gaddafi positions for NATO aircraft to destroy rocket launchers, fuel dumps, ammo stores, artillery batteries and command and control centres, whilst also confirming that no civilians were in the area.

President Kabbah of Sierra Leone decreed the school be named after the Iron Duke in honour of their crew completing the construction of the six classrooms.

[20] The following January Iron Duke deployed to the Caribbean for counter-drugs operations, hurricane season disaster relief standby, and visiting UK Overseas Territories for diplomatic purposes.

[24][25] After 18 months of refit and upgrading, by March 2008 Iron Duke was halfway through her Operational Sea Training, in readiness for deployment to the North Atlantic at the end of May.

[27] Later in April the Iron Duke's Operational Sea Training increased in difficulty with a simulation of tension between Brownian and Ginger forces with negotiations in neutral Freeport (Devonport) and a high risk of terrorist attacks.

Later in the series of exercises a hurricane hit the simulated island of Bullpoint, allowing Iron Duke to test her disaster relief capabilities including first aid, providing food and shelter to the survivors and helping to rebuild basic amenities.

Iron Duke was briefed by the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics, a pan-European counter-narcotics agency, about intelligence on criminal matters such as cannabis and cocaine smuggling on the high seas.

[32] Iron Duke has intercepted illegal drugs being shipped from the Caribbean to Europe on several occasions, sometimes aided by embarked United States Coast Guard personnel.

[36] Iron Duke spent the first half of 2011 in the Persian Gulf before relieving HMS Liverpool off the coast Libya where she took part in combat operations for the first time in her 20-year history.

[12] She returned to Portsmouth in late July, in a joint homecoming with her sister ship Richmond[37] The Royal Navy's next generation helicopter, Wildcat, completed 20 days of demanding trials aboard Iron Duke, her first frigate, in January 2012.

[43] On 20 August 2014, Iron Duke received a 21 gun salute as she approached Robben Island to dock at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.

In June 2017, Iron Duke was assigned to maritime security operations and training around the United Kingdom but deployed at short notice to represent the Royal Navy in the BALTOPS exercise in the Baltic.

Iron Duke was exhibited at the National Armed Forces day in Liverpool which ran from 24–25 June 2017 where the prime minister Theresa May visited the ship.

HMS Iron Duke and RFA Tideforce both followed the trio through the Dover Strait and Channel before handing over monitoring duties to the French Navy.

The Yantar, however, continued to remain in the UK’s area of interest, heading north into the Irish Sea, with minehunter HMS Cattistock monitoring the survey vessel.

As the Golovko and Vyazma continued their journey past France, Iron Duke took over shadowing duties of a second Russian group: frigate Neustrashimy and the replenishment oiler Akademik Pashin, which were making for their home port in the Baltic.