Officials say during the five-week trial, the Daring, capable of accelerating from 0 to 27 knots in two minutes, successfully completed power and propulsion testing and a series of open-water tests that included medium-caliber gun blast trials, weapon alignment tests and long-range radar and navigation systems trials. The Daring also successful tracked a Typhoon aircraft from Manchester, England, to Scotland's west coast, the British Ministry of Defense reported.

The prime contractor for the new Royal Navy ships is British company BAE Systems.

"Once again, Daring has proved that she is a state-of-the-art vessel and a force to be reckoned with," Vic Emery, BAE Systems surface fleet solutions managing director, said in a statement. "To fully complete this set of trials with a 100 per cent success rate is a great achievement, but to do so two days ahead of an already ambitious schedule.

"The power and propulsion trials are now complete and the firing and integration trials have proved to be a resounding success. We remain on course to hand over the ship to the Royal Navy on schedule in December."

A third set of sea trials for Daring is planned for August 2008 ahead of an expected deployment into service in 2009.