Salisbury-class frigate
HMS Lincoln, 1972
| |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Salisbury class |
Operators | |
Succeeded by | Leander class |
Built | 1952–1959 |
In commission |
|
Planned | 7 |
Completed | 4 |
Cancelled | 3 |
Retired | 4 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Frigate |
Displacement |
|
Length | 340 ft (100 m) o/a |
Beam | 40 ft (12 m) |
Draught | 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) |
Propulsion | |
Speed | 24 kn (44 km/h) |
Range | 7,500 nmi (13,900 km) at 16 kn (30 km/h) |
Complement | 235 |
Sensors and processing systems |
|
Armament |
|
The Type 61 Salisbury class was a class of the Royal Navy aircraft direction (AD) frigate, built in the 1950s.[2][3][page needed] The purpose of the aircraft direction ships was to provide radar picket duties at some distance from a carrier task force and offer interception guidance to aircraft operating in their area.
The class was part of a multi-purpose
Design
The Salisbury class frigates were conceived as part of the 1944 project for common-hull diesel-powered 1700-ton anti-submarine (A/S), air-warfare (AW) and aircraft direction (AD) vessels. The first two prototypes were ordered in the late 1945 construction programme
The design of the new air defence frigates could proceed faster as the requirements were clearer and less complex and fuel-efficient diesel power was adequate for convoy escort picket ships. Destroyers could be converted for faster picket duties with carrier task forces. The design of new anti-submarine frigates was delayed due to the expectation that the Soviet Union would build submarines that were much faster underwater, based on the German Type XXI and Type XXIII submarines, which operated at 12–16 knots underwater and hydrogen peroxide (HP) powered submarines running at 22–25 knots submerged. This led the navy to revert to steam turbines and the slower evolution of the Type 12 variant. Steam turbines provided the quietness and speed desirable for anti-submarine applications. However the design of efficient powerful steam turbines for affordable common hulled anti-sub frigates with the range to escort Atlantic convoys and speed to screen carrier task forces took years and was never entirely achieved.
Neither the
The Type 61 was the first of the new generation frigates laid down in 1951.
In the mid-1950s, the Royal Navy was largely operating small light fleet carriers and first-generation jets which could takeoff from slow-moving carriers. In 1960, a second flotilla of four extra Type 61 AD frigates was planned. However by 1961–62 the big carrier HMS Ark Royal's problems were debugged, the reconstructed small carriers HMS Victorious and HMS Hermes came into effective service with second-generation de Havilland Sea Vixens and Supermarine Scimitar aircraft and the navy's best carrier - HMS Eagle - was being reconstructed. Only the four Battle-class AD conversions were suitable as fast carrier pickets, as the Type 61's diesel power plant lacked the speed for operations with fast carrier groups.
In 1962, orders for extra Type 61s were cancelled, long after the second flotilla of Type 41s was abandoned in 1955–1957, and a 2,000-ton 'East Coast convoy' Type 42 frigate (a 25 knot derivative of the T41/61 diesel hull with 3/N5 4-inch automatic Vickers guns
The primary aircraft direction equipment fitted to the Type 61s was initially the Type 960 radar for aircraft warning and Type 982M radar for a degree of 3D cover and better air control over land. The Type 960 radar was replaced by Type 965P at refit for Salisbury (1961–1962), Chichester (1963–1964), Llandaff (1964–1966) and Lincoln (1966–1968) and [17][18]
The Type 965 (AKE-2), had a large "double bedstead" antenna, while the Type 982M radar had a smaller "hayrake" antenna. The Seacat missile system was fitted to Lincoln in a long refit from 1966 to 1968 and in Salisbury from 1967 to 1970. It was the same GWS 20 optically guided system being refitted at the time to the
The Type 986 radar was intended to partially replace one of the roles of 984, giving more accurate, short-range definition of closing air targets to 120 kilometres (75 mi). It was only a partial replacement, as it lacked the 984 system's ability to rank and prioritize large numbers of targets for interrogation and air interception. The 965 twin array radar was limited and obsolete by the 1970s.[19]
In 1973, HMS Chichester was downgraded to
Following serious damage in the Cod War, HMS Lincoln was repaired and returned to service until the end of the decade. After refits, it returned to the status of an operational RN frigate declared to NATO.
Construction programme
Pennant | Name | Builder | Ordered | Laid Down | Launched | Accepted into service[a] | Commissioned | Estimated building cost[b] | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F32 | Salisbury | (a) HM Dockyard, Devonport (b) Vickers Armstrong (Engineers) Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness [22] |
21 August 1951 [23] | 23 January 1952 [24] | 25 June 1953 [24] | 27 February 1957 [22] | 27 February 1957 [24] | £2,900,000 [22] | Sale to Egypt was cancelled 1978 in whilst on delivery trip. In May 1980 served as harbour training ship at Devonport. Sunk as target on 30 September 1985.[24][25] |
F59 | Chichester | (a) The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Glasgow (b) British Polar Engines Ltd, Glasgow [26] |
28 June 1951 [23] | 26 June 1953 [24] | 21 June 1955 [24] | May 1958 [26] | 16 May 1958 [24] | £3,291,000 [26] | Converted to harbour guardship for Hong Kong 1973; sold for dismantling on 17 March 1981.[24][25] |
F61 | Llandaff | (a) R & W Hawthorn Leslie and Co Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne (b) British Polar Engines Ltd, Glasgow [26] |
28 June 1951 [23] | 27 August 1953 [24] | 30 November 1955 [24] | April 1958 [26] | 11 April 1958 [24] | £3,393,000 [26] | Sold to Bangladesh 10 December 1978 as BNS Umar Farooq.[24][27] Claimed sold for breaking up in April 1983.[25] but was in active service until 2015.[28] Finally beached for breaking at Chittagong on 19 November 2016.[29] |
F99 | Lincoln | (a) The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Glasgow (b) Cammell Laird and Co (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd, Birkenhead[30] |
28 June 1951 [23] | 1 June 1955 [24] | 6 April 1959 [24] | July 1960 [30] | 7 July 1960 [24] | £3,685,000 [30] | Sale to Egypt in 1978 was cancelled. Recommissioned briefly in August 1979 as submarine target.[25] Was intended to be sold to Bangladesh in 1982,[24] but transfer did not take place.[27] Ship dismantled in 1983.[25] |
Three further ships of the class were planned. Two of these, intended as HMS Exeter and Gloucester, were cancelled under the 1957 Defence Review, while a third, HMS Coventry, was suspended. It was hoped to order Coventry in 1961, but in the end it was decided to order the planned hull as a Leander-class frigate that became HMS Penelope.[24]
Notes
- ^ The term used in Navy Estimates and Defence Estimates is "accepted into service". Hansard has used the term acceptance date. Leo Marriott in his various books uses the term "completed", as does Jane's Fighting Ships. These terms all mean the same thing: the date the Navy accepts the vessel from the builder. This date is important because maintenance cycles, etc. are generally calculated from the acceptance date.
- ^ "Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, First Outfits)." (from Defences Estimates)
Citations
- ^ Gardiner, p. 157
- ^ Purvis, M.K., 'Post War RN Frigate and Guided Missile Destroyer Design 1944–1969', Transactions, Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), 1974
- ^ Marriott 1990
- ^ CAB 1294 1945 & ADM 138/830 ref in D.K Brown % G. Moore. Redesigning the TN (2012) p 71-75
- ^ Brown & Moore (2012)p73-4
- ^ D.K. Brown and G. Moore. Redesigning the RN. Post WW2. Seaforth. Barnsley. 2012, pp71-4.
- ^ R. Gardiner. Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships. Pt 1 Western Powers. London (1983) pp 152–3, 157–9 & 161–62.
- ^ A. Preston in R. Gardiner (ed) Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships. Pt 1. Western Powers. Conway Maritime. London. 1983, p157, 159.
- ^ H.T. Lenton British Commonwealth Warships. Ian Allan. London (1966 & 1971)
- ^ J. E. Moore. British Warships. Janes. London (1979 & 1981)
- ^ Brown & Moore. Rebuilding the RN (2012) p74-5
- ^ G. Wright. HMNZS Blackpool. Auckland
- ^ R Gardiner & A.Preston. "Whitby/Rothesay T12" All the World's Fighting Ships. Western Powers.
- ^ Preston, A. (1983). Gardiner, R (ed.). Conways All the World Fighting Ships 1947–82 Pt 1. London. p. 162.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Gardiner & Preston. Conways Fighting Ships 1947–1982. Pt 1. Western Powers. Conway Maritime. London. 1983, p 159.
- ^ A. Preston in R. Gardiner(ed). Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships. London. 1983, p 161.
- ISBN 978-1848320154.
- ^ Blackman, Raymond V B, ed. (1966). Jane's Fighting Ships 1966-67. Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd. p. 296.
- ^ N. Freidman. British Destroyers & Frigates. The Second World War And After. Chatham Publishing, UK (2006), p162.
- ^ Hugo White Obituary, The Times. London, 7 June 2014
- ^ Independent. London 10 June 2014
- ^ a b c Navy Estimates, 1957–58, pages 234–5, List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended 31 March 1957
- ^ ISBN 0-85177-948-4page 134.
- ^ ISBN 0-85177-605-1 page 517.].
Note that this page of Conway's appears to contains errors concerning the fate of ships. Where either pages 23 of Conway's or Norman Friedman's book contradict page 517 of Conway's, about the fate of vessels of the Salisbury class, then page 517 has been assumed to be less reliable[citation needed - ^ a b c d e Friedman, 2006. page 338.
- ^ a b c d e f Navy Estimates, 1959–60, pages 230–1, List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended 31 March 1959
- ^ ISBN 0-85177-605-1page 23.
- ^ Deccan Chronicle, Bangladesh Navy ship docks in city, 19 December 2010
- ^ GMS Weekly, 2 December 2016 Volume 172, Issue 751, Week 49
- ^ a b c Navy Estimates, 1961–62, pages 220–51, List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended 31 March 1961
References
- Purvis, M.K., "Post War RN Frigate and Guided Missile Destroyer Design 1944–1969", Transactions, Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), 1974
- Marriott, Leo (1990). Royal Navy Frigates Since 1945 (2nd ed.). Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0-7110-1915-0.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1995). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.
- Friedman, Norman (2006). British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After. London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-84832-015-4.
External links