One of the most important factors in turning one into a legend is, of course, its superior
success that distinguishes itself from its peers. But one of the things ancient Greek
tragedies teach humanity is that sometimes tragic failures make it legend. Designed according
to the newest concepts at the dawn of the missile age and the height of the First Cold
War, the Type 42-class destroyers were the subject of great expectations. However, these
ships took their place in the history books with their misfortunes. Now we are investigating
the Type 42.
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Before we talk about the misfortunes of these beautiful ships, it is useful to make a few
reminders. Luck favours the bold is a well-known saying. But this does not mean that every
bold is also lucky, it is necessary to try and dare for success, whether the outcome
is good or bad. Those who do not dare may never lose, but never win. Type 42 was not
worse than its counterparts. It even had certain advantages.
However, the vast majority of mighty surface combatants designed during the First Cold
War were never used in full scale naval battles, and so they saw neither glorious victories
nor tragic losses.
In fact, the birth of the Type 42-class destroyers was also the result of a series of unfortunate
events.
In 1962, the Royal Navy started the CVA-01 Project. The aim this project to design and
build four new conventional aircraft carriers, accommodates 50 aircrafts. These ships would
replace veteran HMS Victorious, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Hermes, and HMS Eagle aircraft carriers.
The UK was also planning to build four Type 82-class air defence destroyers to escort
each CVA-01-class. In fact, these destroyers, with their size, seakeeping capabilities,
and long-range air defence missiles, were naval combat ships equivalent to the light
cruisers of the US Navy.
But even though it was difficult to accept, it was now the sunset time for the once Empire
on which the sun never sets. The Labour Government, which came to power in 1964, was aware of
this fact and no longer wanted to spend money on projects that push the budget. London,
which ceased to be a global power, gave up the CVA-01, one of the symbols of this power,
in 1966.
The time of the pocket aircraft carriers with VSTOL Harriers began.
For the Royal Navy, which gave up the conventional aircraft carrier, the Type 82 was no longer
necessary.
This was an acceptable sacrifice, given the relative shortness of the mission area for
the Royal Navy, which as a primary task was to protect the sea lines from the Soviet submarines
and bombers between the North American and European continents.
Type 42 was an air defence destroyer. In a simple definition, the ship was a floating
Sea Dart battery.
The Type 42 carried a total of 22 units of Sea Dart.
HMS Sheffield was launched on June 10, 1971 and commissioned February 15, 1975. The age
of the Type 42 had begun.
The full loaded displacement of the ship was 4,100 tons. The early models of the destroyer,
called Batch 1 and 2, had 125 metres length, 14.3 metres beam, and 5.8 metres draught.
Two 4,950-horsepower RM1C gas turbine engines provided 18 knot-cruise speed. When the Type
42 needed acceleration, it could reach 29 knots by running two 25,000-horsepower TM3B
gas turbine engines. The destroyer was able to sail 7,400 kilometres at an economic speed.
The main armament of the ship was GWS-30 Sea Dart missiles. There were also one 114mm and
four 20 mm gun on the destroyer. After the Falkland War, all Type 42s of the Royal Navy
were equipped with two 20mm six-barrel Phalanx close weapon systems. Additionally, ships
had two triple torpedo tubes and a flight deck and enclosed hangar for one Lynx helicopter.
The first of the class, HMS Sheffield, was initially fitted with the odd-looking exhaust
deflectors on her funnel tops in order to guide the high-temperature exhaust efflux
sideward.
ARA Hércules and ARA Santísima Trinidad, built for the Argentine Navy, had also these
ears like deflectors.
But they caused high infrared signature, so other ships of the class had more conventional
funnel top.
Other differences of the HMS Sheffield, she was the only British Type 42 to be not fitted
with torpedo tubes.
Soviet anti-ship guided missiles of the time were like kamikaze aircrafts controlled by
poorly trained pilot. They had the same dimensions with aircraft and their sea skimming capabilities
were weak. Therefore, it was seeming to be suitable choice using long range air defence
missiles rather than close defence system.
When the threat was the USSR, everything seemed perfect on paper. Nevertheless, everybody’s
nightmare, namely the Third World War, never broke out. But a different challenge is waiting
for the Royal Navy.
A shock hit the Government in the London On April 2, 1982. Argentine troops had invaded
the Falkland Islands, the British Crown’s territory in South Atlantic. While the UK
was preparing for a possible war on the North, the real war began on the South.
The Royal Navy was no longer an armada that dominated the world's seas, as it was 50 years
ago.
The British sailors, however, had to go to war in order to protect the territory and
dignity of their country.
The Argentine Navy with an aircraft carrier and a cruiser could be a tough opponent for
the Royal Navy. This worried the admirals in London. Still, their concerns were quickly
resolved.
A British nuclear submarine, HMS Conqueror sink ARA General Belgrano.
The Argentine destroyers who escorted the cruiser could not do anything, even spot the
enemy attacking them.
In these circumstances, the Argentine Navy did not dare to leave their bases again.
Afterwards, the war around the Falkland Islands would now take place between the Royal Navy
and the Argentine Air Force, unless we count the brave but futile endeavour of the ARA
San Luis submarine.
On the wavy seas of the South Atlantic, the Type 42s were responsible to provide an air
defence umbrella on the British Task Force against Argentine aircrafts. However, the
Royal Navy first lost a ship of this class in air strikes.
On May 10, 1982, HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet AM39 anti-ship missile coming out
of the skies. This was a great shock. Because HMS Sheffield, which had to provide air defence
for the HMS Hermes aircraft carrier, could not protect herself from the air raid.
As is generally accepted, theory and practice never always meet. Behind this tragedy lies
the incompatibility between the theories that put forward peace time and the practice of
wartime. Just before the attack HMS Sheffield had moved
away from the fleet to establish radio connection with the admiralty in the UK. Also, her long-range
weather radar had been turned off. The reason was that, in an environment where many combat
ships operated all their radars simultaneously, radio interference disabled effective communication.
Since threat perceptions of the Royal Navy were all based on Soviet aircraft coming from
high altitudes, early warning systems to detect low-altitude enemies were lacking.
So, the Type 42s had been not equipped of close defence system against sea skimming
missiles like Exocet.
In order to reduce costs and weight, these destroyers had built using PVC and aluminium
material. When an Exocet pierced through the HMS Sheffield’s hull, it did not explode.
However, its remaining fuel caused a catastrophic fire. On the one hand, the aluminium body
melted and burned, on the other hand, PVC ignited and started to emit poisonous gas.
This gas made firefighting efforts impossible.
At that point, there was nothing left to do for the HMS Sheffield.
Two days following the doom of HMS Sheffield, HMS Glasgow of the same class was hit by free-fall
bombs released by the Argentine A-4 Skyhawks.
The Royal Navy was lucky, this time. The air strike was carried out at a lower altitude
than the Argentine had expected. It caused the fuse of the bomb to not be activated,
which had been set to release from a higher altitude. However, passing through the aft
engine room, the bomb made the fuel systems useless. Although she did not sink, the war
was over for HMS Glasgow.
On May 25, the Argentine A-4s this time attacked another Type 42, HMS Coventry. Threats approaching
from low altitudes were detected very late. The ship did not feature any weapons for close
defence other than manually controlled 20mm guns, which were added to the ship later.
HMS Coventry could not survive this air raid and sank.
This time, a long-range anti-ship missile had been not used, as happened to HMS Sheffield.
On the contrary, HMS Coventry was sunk with unguided bombs left by planes approaching
within the earshot of her. It was noteworthy that a modern air defence destroyer with advanced
radar and missile technologies was lost without a difference from the time of the Second World
War.
Anyway, Type 42s were not totally unsuccessful at all during the Falklands War.
The Sea Dart missiles fired from this class of destroyers managed to shoot down, one Argentine
SA-330 Puma helicopter, four A-4 Skyhawk combat aircrafts, one Learjet reconnaissance aircraft,
and one Canberra bomber.
Still, misfortune was the middle name for Type 42s.
During the war, one British Gazelle helicopter was shot down by the Sea Dart missiles fired
from these destroyers.
The Falklands War became a laboratory that demonstrated the changing characteristics
of naval battles. An air defence based only on missile use has been wrong on the modern
battlefield.
After the war, the Type 42s underwent an upgrade to be equipped with Mk 15 Phalanx close-in
weapon systems, decoy launchers, and additional 20mm guns.
Recognising the structural deficiencies of the Type 42s following the Falklands War,
the Royal Navy commissioned in mid-1980s four modified destroyers designated as the Type
42 Batch 3. Their fore part of this version had been lengthened to feature much better
sea keeping, compared to their predecessors.
Different from Batch 1 and 2, the Type 42 Batch 3 had 4,675 tons full loaded displacement,
141.1 metres length, 15.2 metres beam. Different models of the same gas turbines were used
on the ship. While the power of the cruise gas turbine was increased to 5,340 horsepower,
the power of the high-speed gas turbines was reduced to 21,500 horsepower. However, the
maximum speed of the destroyer was over 30 knots. While the weapon systems remained the
same, the old rounded 114mm gun turrets of HMS Manchester, HMS York and HMS Edinburgh
were replaced by those with angular structure that reduced the radar signature.
Despite modifications, the Type 42’s luck had not been turned. On a patrolling in the
Persian Gulf in 1988, HMS Southampton suffered a collision with MV Tor Bay container ship.
The collision caused great damage and sentenced her to a three-year repair.
In 2001, HMS Nottingham ran aground off the shores of Australia.
Actually, Lynx helicopters of the Type 42s were much luckier them their mother ships.
During the 1991 Gulf War, on January 24, HMS Cardiff's Lynx helicopter spotted Iraqi minesweepers
and landing craft going to support the Iraqi land operations of the Battle of Khafji. The
helicopter attacked and sank one. This was the first successful British naval engagement
of the war. On January 30 and 31, the Lynxes from HMS Gloucester and HMS Cardiff attacked
at least two Iraqi guided missile fast attack boats exiting the Shatt Al Arab. In the next
month, the helicopter of HMS Cardiff sank two more Iraqi ships.
The last years of the Type 42 were intense but accident-free. These destroyers often
appeared on natural disaster relief, aircraft carrier escorts and counter narcotic patrols
duties, but did not experience any other significant misfortune.
In fact, 2011 was a lucky year. HMS Liverpool, which patrolled off the coast of Libya, managed
to get rid of the attacks against her while performing the successful coastal bombardment,
several time. Once, the destroyer intercepted the pro-Gaddafi maritime forces, who were
trying to escape from Misrata, and locked them in the harbour.
In 1999, HMS Birmingham was the first Type 42 to decommissioned.
The last of this class, HMS Edinburgh was decommissioned in 2013.
The story of the Type 42 in the Argentine Navy was also not lucky. In early 1970s, the
Argentine Navy had ordered two destroyers of this class.
The second ship of this class, ARA Santísima Trinidad, to be constructed in Argentina according
to the deal and thus was laid down in 1971. The dockyard where construction operations
were performed, witnessed a terrorist attack. The attack further delayed building activities
in this dockyard, already suffering from inadequate technical capabilities. Commissioned only
after 8 years, in 1981; ARA Santísima Trinidad was decommissioned in 1989.
This short service period was an outcome of insufficient spare parts, caused by the embargo
faced by Argentina in the aftermath of the Falklands War. The first ship, ARA Hércules
could not remain long in service as an air defence destroyer, on account of the same
reason. In 1999, it was customised for providing command support in amphibious operations.
Finding the opportunity to be tested in real combat conditions, the Type 42 inspired the
many surface combatant programs carried out in the following years with both their successes
and failures.
The use of close-in weapon systems has become widespread after 1982.
In combat ship construction, non-combustible steel has been used instead of combustible
aluminium. The use of PVC, which releases toxic gas when it burned, began to be abandoned.
The designs with more stealth features have been made.
The combat information centres of the surface combatants have been armoured.
And, the importance of early warning aircrafts in the task forces have been once again understood.
Looking from this point of view, although the Type 42 is known more with its misfortunes,
it would not be wrong to consider it as a legendary platform, which paved the way to
modern combat ship design.
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