The Type 42 or Sheffield class, are guided missile destroyers of the Royal Navy.

History

The class was designed in the late 1960s to provide fleet area air-defence. In total fourteen vessels were constructed in three batches, eight of which remain in service. In addition, two ships were also built to the same specifications as the Batch 1 vessels for the Armada Republica Argentina. The ships, along with the Type 23 frigates, today form the backbone of the Royal Navy surface fleet. HMS Sheffield and Coventry were lost in the Falklands War to enemy action, this war being the first where two surface warships of the same design have been on opposite sides since the second world war, where four Flower class corvettes were launched by the German navy.

When the Type 82 air defence cruisers were cancelled along with the proposed CVA-01 carrier by the Labour Government of 1966, the Type 42 was proposed as a lighter and cheaper design with the same capabilities as the Type 82. The class is fitted with the Sea Dart surface-to-air missile first deployed on Bristol. The Type 42s were also given a flight deck and hangar to field an anti-submarine warfare helicopter, greatly increasing their utility compared to the Type 82.

The design was budgeted with a ceiling of £19 million per hull, but soon ran over-budget. The final design at (£21 million) became the 'Batch 3'. To cut costs, the first two batches had 47 feet removed from the bow and the beam-to-length ratio was reduced. These Type 42s performed poorly during the contractor's sea trials particularly in heavy seas and the hull was extensively examined for other problems. The Batch 1s (Sheffield through to Cardiff) and Batch 2s (Exeter through to Liverpool) are notoriously poor sea-keepers compared to the later Batch 3s.

The class was fitted with exhaust deflectors to her Rolls Royce Olympus TM1A turbine engines to minimise damage to overhead aerials. As this was a prominent target for then new infra-red homing missiles, the deflectors were removed during later refits in Portsmouth. All subsequent Olympus and Tyne uptakes were fitted with 'cheese graters' which mix machinery space vent air with the engine exhaust.

The Argentine versions of this class are both based at Puerto Belgrano; Santisima Trinidad now being used for spares for her heavily modified sister, Hercules, which has a new aft superstructure and hangar and Exocet missile launchers.

Design details

The Type 42 destroyer was built to fill the gap left by the cancellation of the large Type 82 destroyer. It was intended to fulfil the same role, with similar systems yet on a smaller and more cost effective hull. The ships are primarily carriers for the GWS-30 Sea Dart surface-to-air missile system. Although claimed to be obsolete, it is still effective against most modern missile threats, as proven in the 1991 Gulf War.

The Type 42 is also equipped with a 4.5 inch (114 mm) gun and six torpedo launchers. Two Vulcan Phalanx Mk 15 Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) were fitted to British type 42s after the loss of Sheffield to an Exocet missile. There have been three batches of ships, Batch 1 & 2 displacing 4,820 tonnes and Batch 3 (sometimes referred to as the Manchester class) displacing 5,200 tonnes. As per the norm, Batch 3 ships were heavily upgraded. Although the Batch 3 ships were lengthened, the planned Sea Wolf missile systems were never fitted. Because of their more general warfare role, the two Argentine ships have been fitted with the MM38 Exocet, and not with a CIWS.

The electronics suite includes one Type 1022 D-band long range radar with Outfit LFB track extractor or one Type 965P long ranger air survellience radar, one Type 996 E/F-band 3D target indication radar with Outfit LFA track extractor or type 992Q surface search, two Type 909 I/J-band fire control radars and an Outfit LFD Radar Track Combiner.

In recent years the importance of the ageing Type 42 destroyers has increased. The UK has adopted an increasingly expeditionary defence policy and the deletion of the Sea Dart missile systems from the Invincible class aircraft carriers has made the role of escort all the more important.

All ships are propelled by Rolls Royce TM3B Olympus and Rolls Royce RM1C Tyne gas turbines, arranged in a COGOG (Combined Gas or Gas) arrangement, driving through Synchronous Self-Shifting Clutches into a Double Reduction, Dual Tandem, Articulated, Locked-Train gear system and out through five blade Stone Manganese Controllable Pitch Propellers (CPP). All have four Paxman Ventura 16YJCAZ diesel generators, each creating 1 MW of 3ph 440V power.

Replacement

The ships are all scheduled to be out of service by 2014. By 2007 none of the Batch 1 vessels remained in commission. Initially the UK sought to procure replacements first in collaboration with seven other NATO nations under the NFR-90 project and then with France and Italy through the Horizon CNGF programme. However, both these collaborative ventures failed and the UK decided to go it alone with a national project. Jane's described this situation in its 2000 Warship's edition as 'little short of a national scandal'.

The Type 42s are now to be replaced by six Type 45 destroyers. Named; HMS Daring, Dauntless, Defender, Dragon, Duncan and Diamond have been ordered. The Type 42 class has always suffered from cramped accommodation, a problem for crew safety and comfort, and also when finding space for upgrades. The Type 45s are to be considerably larger, displacing almost 7,400 tonnes, compared to the Type 42 displacement of 4,820–5,200 tonnes.

Name	Pennant	Builder	Launched	Commissioned	Home port	Status
Royal Navy
Batch 1
Sheffield	D80	VSEL	10 June 1971	16 February 1975	Portsmouth	Sunk in Falklands War
Birmingham	D86	Cammell Laird	30 July 1973	3 December 1976	Portsmouth	Sold for Scrap
Newcastle	D87	Swan Hunter	24 April 1975	23 March 1978	Portsmouth	Awaiting Disposal
Glasgow	D88	Swan Hunter	14 April 1976	25 May 1977	Portsmouth	Awaiting Disposal
Cardiff	D108	VSEL	22 February 1974	24 September 1979	Portsmouth	Awaiting Disposal
Coventry	D118	Cammell Laird	21 June 1974	20 October 1978	Portsmouth	Sunk in Falklands War
Batch 2
Exeter	D89	Swan Hunter	25 April 1978	18 September 1980	Portsmouth	Extended Readiness
Southampton	D90	Vosper Thornycroft	29 January 1979	31 October 1981	Portsmouth	Extended Readiness
Nottingham	D91	Vosper Thornycroft	18 February 1980	8 April 1983	Portsmouth	Extended Readiness
Liverpool	D92	Cammell Laird	25 September 1980	9 July 1982	Portsmouth	Active
Batch 3
Manchester	D95	VSEL	24 November 1980	16 December 1982	Portsmouth	Active
Gloucester	D96	Vosper Thornycroft	2 November 1982	11 September 1985	Portsmouth	Active
Edinburgh	D97	Cammell Laird	14 April 1983	17 December 1985	Portsmouth	Active
York	D98	Swan Hunter	21 June 1982	9 August 1985	Portsmouth	Active
Armada Republica Argentina
ARA Hercules	BV52	VSEL	24 October 1972	12 July 1976	Puerto Belgrano	Active
ARA Santisima Trinidad	D2	AFNE, Rio Santiago	9 November 1974	1 July 1981	Puerto Belgrano	Awaiting disposal

Notes

See also