County-class destroyer

Class overview
Builders: Cammell Laird
Swan Hunter
Vickers Armstrong
Operators:  Royal Navy
 Chilean Navy
 Pakistan Navy
Preceded by: Daring class
Succeeded by: Type 82
Subclasses: Batch 1
Batch 2
In commission: 16 November 1962 – 22 September 2006
Completed: 8
Cancelled: 2[1]
Laid up: Almirante Cochrane ex Antrim
Capitán Prat ex Norfolk
Lost: HMS Devonshire (as target)
Almirante Latorre (accident on way to scrap)
General characteristics
Displacement:6,200 tons
Length:520.16 ft (158.54 m)
Beam:54 ft (16 m)
Draught:21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:COSAG on 2 shafts;
2 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers, geared steam turbines, 30,000 shp
4 × Metrovick G6 gas turbines, 30,000 shp
Speed:30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range:3,500 nm
Complement:471 (33 officers, 438 ratings)
Armament:2 × Fore-mounted twin-gunned turret with 4.5-inch (114 mm) guns Mark N6 (Batch 2's turret "B" was later replaced by 4 × MM38 Exocet missile launchers)
2 × mountings for Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
1 × Aft-mounted Seaslug GWS.1 or GWS.2 SAM (24 missiles)
2 × mountings (port & starboard) for Seacat GWS-22 SAM
2 × triple-tube launchers for shipborne torpedoes
Aircraft carried:1 × Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter
Aviation facilities:Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter

The County class was a class of guided missile destroyer, the first such vessels built by the Royal Navy. Designed specifically around the Sea Slug anti-aircraft missile system, the primary role of these ships was area air-defence around the aircraft carrier task force in the nuclear-war environment.

The class was designed as a hybrid cruiser-destroyer, with a much larger displacement (similar to that of the Dido-class cruiser) than its predecessor, the Daring class; even during the final design period of 1956 - 1958 an alternative, full gun armament was envisaged,[2] being planned on a modern combined gas turbine and steam turbine propulsion unit as basically improved Daring fleet escorts with 2 twin Mk 6 4.5, 2 twin L/70 40mm and a twin 3 inch/70. Only as late as 1958 was the decision made to fit the ships with guided missiles [3] on the basis of strong support from the First Lord and Cabinet against much RN and RAF staff reports over missile reliability, accuracy [4] and vulnerability of the above the waterline missile magazine. The First Lord Earl Mountbatten believed by describing the County class as destroyers rather than cruisers and demonstrating the apparently impressive performance of Sea Slug on the missile range against Gloster Meteor UC15 drones, he could justify a modern Royal Navy and a large number of County class 'destroyers'[5] While short on the support and logistic spares stocks of a traditional cruiser, they were still envisaged by the DNC as being 'probably' used in the cruiser role [6] with space for flagship and admiral's barge accommodation[7]:pp. 181–190 in the 1960s—the last decade when the UK oversaw significant colonial territory ("East of Suez"). Its missile capability was overtaken by aircraft development by 1962–63, when HMS Devonshire and Hampshire entered service, but in the early and mid-1960s the modern lines of these guided-missile destroyers, with their traditional RN cruiser style and their impressive-looking missiles, enabled the overstretched Royal Navy to project sufficient power to close down the threat of a militant, left-leaning Indonesia to Malaysia and Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.[8]

Design features

Batch 1 ship HMS Devonshire. Observe the single row of the Type 965 AKE-1 antenna and the short foremast carrying the Type 992P "cheese" antenna and a topmast supporting the ECM/ESM arrays.
Batch 2 ship HMS Norfolk following modification that has removed the 'B' turret and replaced it with four Exocet boxes

The County class was designed around the GWS1 Sea Slug beam riding anti-aircraft missile system. Sea Slug was a first-generation surface-to-air missile intended to hit high-flying nuclear-armed bombers and shadowing surveillance aircraft like the Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear", which could direct strikes against the British fleet from missile destroyers and cruise missile-armed submarines. Bears were formidable targets for a missile like Sea Slug; the long-range Soviet turboprop aircraft flew at an altitude of 7.5 miles, at 572 mph (921 km/h)[9] and were barely within the engagement capability of Sea Slug. The Sea Slug system was a large weapon. From the missile itself-6 m (19 ft 8 in)-long and weighing two tons, to its handling arrangements and electronics systems—even fitting a single system aboard a ship the size of the "Counties" was a challenge. The missile was stowed horizontally in a large magazine that took up a great deal of internal space. On the last four ships, some of the missiles were stored partly disassembled in the forward end of the magazine to enable the complement of missiles to be increased. These missiles had their wings and fins reattached before being moved into the aft sections of the handling spaces and eventually loaded onto the large twin launcher for firing. The electronics required for the Sea Slug were the large Type 901 fire-control radar and the Type 965 air-search radar. These required a great deal of weight to be carried high up on the ship, further affecting ship layout. According to the Royal Navy architect, "Sea Slug did not live up to expectations" and was obsolete by 1957.[1]:pp.39, 188 Its ineffectiveness and dangerous missile fuel degraded the value of the class, which had potential as command ships, having more operations room space than later Type 42 destroyer and ADAWS and the MIL-STD-6011 communications system. The US Navy offered the superior Terrier missile to NATO nations including the UK, and Australia requested in 1960 a County class with the sister Tartar missile and hangar space for 3 Wessex.[10] Terrier had some staff support, but no consideration was given to acquiring it for the second batch of four ships.The County class were shop windows for advanced UK technology, and it was imperitive for the British missile and aerospace industry to continue the Seaslug project to allow the light years better, Sea Dart project, design time was too great, for a RAN version of the County class.[11] Following problems with the original version, a reworked Action Data Automation Weapon System (ADAWS) was successfully trialled on HMS Norfolk in 1970.[7]:p.191 In the mid-1960s the County missile destroyers were assets, their impressive appearance and data links, feeding off the carriers' Type 984 radar, projected effective capability during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.[12] The Mark 1 Seaslug was operationally reliable and proved useful as a missile target for the new Sea Dart missiles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. (The supersonic Mark 2 version proved less effective for this.) There are questions as to whether it was ever fully operational and there were problems with missiles breaking up when the boosters separated.[13]:p.192 Inaccuracy, primitive beam-riding guidance and lack of infra red homing or a proximity fuse in the Mk 1 made it of limited value.[1]:p. 39 Short-range air defence was provided by the GWS-22 Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile system, which made the "Counties" the first Royal Navy warships to be armed with two different types of guided missile.

As constructed, the County-class ships were armed with a pair of twin QF 4.5-inch gun mountings. The second batch of four ships (Antrim, Fife, Glamorgan and Norfolk) were refitted in the mid-1970s – their 'B'-position turrets were removed and replaced by four single MM38 Exocet surface-to-surface anti-ship-missile launcher boxes. This was partly to counter the continuing threat of Soviet gun- and missile-armed cruisers, but also because the two twin 4.5 mountings, located forward on the County-class, were cramped and hot to fire, with the heat from firing the upper gun being felt by the gun crew in the turret below; and, the forward twin turrets had space for only small magazines – only 225 shells for each gun, two-thirds of the magazine capacity for the same guns in the Leander (Type 12L) frigates.[13]:p.189 This made the County-class ships the only Royal Navy ships to be fitted with three separate types of guided missile. It also left the un-refitted ships as the last Royal Navy vessels to be able to fire a broadside from multiple main armament turrets which HMS London fired on 10 December 1981 in the English Channel, after returning from its last deployment in the West Indies.[14] It had also fired off the last Sea Slug Mk 1 stocks that year, as targets for Type 42 Sea Dart workups, prior to her hand-over to the Pakistani Navy. Sold by the British Government 23 March 1982 It sailed without notice from Portsmouth in late May 1982 for Pakistan during the Falklands crisis and consideration may have been given to reclaiming it for war service.

Antrim and Glamorgan both served in the Falklands War; Antrim was the flagship of Operation Paraquet, the recovery of South Georgia in April 1982. Her helicopter, a Westland Wessex HAS Mk 3, nicknamed "Humphrey", was responsible for the remarkable rescue of 16 Special Air Service operators from Fortuna Glacier and the subsequent detection and disabling of the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe. In San Carlos Water, Antrim was hit by a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb which failed to explode. Glamorgan, after many days on the "gun line" bombarding Port Stanley airfield, was hit by an Exocet launched from land at the end of the conflict. It destroyed her aircraft hangar and the port Sea Cat mounting. Fortunately, her captain's prompt reaction to visual detection of the incoming Exocet narrowly averted a hit on the fatally vulnerable Sea Slug magazine, by turning the ship so as to give as little target as possible (the stern) to the incoming weapon. The ship suffered fourteen deaths, injuries, and was lucky to survive with extensive damage and flooding. Had the missile hit a few inches higher, the above waterline magazine would have blown in an explosive fireball and many of the crew [15] may have been lost.

Possible development

It was suggested that "The Counties" could have been developed for the anti-submarine role by replacing the obsolete Sea Slug GWS system with a larger hangar and flight deck. Certainly, these arrangements as originally installed to operate a single Wessex anti-submarine helicopter were problematic, with a hangar so cramped it took an hour to get the aircraft either in or out again, during which evolution the port Sea-Cat launcher was un-usable. However it was determined that beam-restrictions would still limit the Counties' helicopter operation in RN service to the obsolescent Wessex, as they were too narrow to handle the far more capable Sea King HAS. The Chilean navy, however, did convert two of the three ships they purchased along these lines.

Ships of the class

Eight vessels were built in two batches between 1959 and 1970, the later four vessels carrying the improved Sea Slug GWS2 and updated electronics requiring rearranged mastheads. The major identifying feature was the Batch 2 vessels' prominent "double-bedstead" AKE-2 antennas of the Type 965 air-search radar, and their taller foremast carrying the Type 992Q low-angle search radar.

Batch 1

Batch 2

Four of the "Counties" took names used by the famous interwar County-class cruisers: London, Norfolk, Devonshire and Kent. (The last of these, HMS Cumberland, had survived until 1959 as a trials ship). Devonshire, Hampshire, Antrim and Kent also inherited the names of Devonshire-class armoured cruisers of the First World War.

Four of the new ships were named after counties containing a Royal Navy Dockyard; these were: Devonshire (Devonport Dockyard), Hampshire (Portsmouth Dockyard), Kent (Chatham Dockyard), and Fife (Rosyth dockyard). Glamorgan and Antrim were named after the counties in Wales and Northern Ireland which contain the port cities and regional capitals of Cardiff and Belfast (by analogy to London, England). Norfolk commemorated the county of Nelson's birth, and the important 19th-century ports of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.

All eight of the class had short Royal Navy careers, serving on average less than 16 years. Only London of the first batch was transferred (to Pakistan) and served further, while the other three Batch 1 ships were decommissioned by 1980 with Hampshire being immediately scrapped in 1977, Devonshire sunk in weapons testing in 1984. Kent would serve as a floating (though immobile) accommodation and training ship in Portsmouth harbour until 1996. The four ships of Batch 2 however would be operated for 16 to 23 more years after sale to the Chilean Navy, in which they all received extensive upgrades and modernisation.

Construction programme

The ships were built at the major UK yards, with some of the machinery coming from Associated Electrical Industries of Manchester, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company of Wallsend-on-Tyne, John I. Thornycroft & Company of Southampton, Yarrows of Glasgow, and the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Wallsend-on-Tyne.

Pennant Name Built by Ordered Laid down Launched Accepted
into service		 Commissioned Estimated
building cost[16]
D02 Devonshire Cammell Laird, Birkenhead[17] 24 January 1956[18] 9 March 1959[18] 10 June 1960[18] November 1962[17] 15 November 1962[18] £14,080,000[17]
D06 Hampshire John Brown & Company, Clydebank[17] 27 January 1956[18] 26 March 1959[18] 16 March 1961[18] March 1963[17] 15 March 1963[18] £12,625,000[17]
D12 Kent Harland & Wolff, Belfast[19] 6 February 1957[18] 1 March 1960[18] 27 September 1961[18] August 1963[19] 15 August 1963[18] £13,650,000[19]
D16 London Swan Hunter, Wallsend-on-Tyne[19] 6 February 1957[18] 26 February 1960[18] 7 December 1961[18] November 1963[19] 14 November 1963[18] £13,900,000[19]
D20 Fife Fairfields, Glasgow[20] 26 September 1961[18] 1 June 1962[18] 9 July 1964[18] June 1966[20] 21 June 1966[18] £15,250,000[20]
D19 Glamorgan Vickers Shipbuilding, Newcastle[20] 26 September 1961[18] 13 September 1962[18] 9 July 1964[18] October 1966[20] 11 October 1966[18] £14,100,000[20]
D21 Norfolk Swan Hunter[21] 5 January 1965[18] 15 March 1966[18] 16 November 1967[18] February 1970[21] 7 March 1970[18] £16,900,000[21]
D18 Antrim Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, Govan[22] 5 January 1965[18] 20 January 1966[18] 19 October 1967[18] November 1970[22] 14 July 1970[18] £16,350,000[22]

Cost of ownership

Running costs

Date Running cost What is included
1972–73 £500,000 Average annual maintenance cost per vessel for County-class destroyers[23]
1981–82 £7.0 million Average annual running cost of County-class destroyers at average 1981–82 prices and including associated aircraft costs but excluding the costs of major refits.[24]

Cost of major refits

Date Running cost What is included Citation
£5½ million – £8 million Cost of recently completed major refits for County-class destroyers. [25]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Brown D. K. and Moore G.
  2. ↑ N. Hall. County Class Missile Destroyers. Ships Monthly, May 2008, p 48-51.
  3. ↑ J. Wise. Girdle Ness. Seaslug Missile Trials. Warship 2007, p19-21.
  4. ↑ Wise. Girdle Ness. Warship 2007, p19-21
  5. ↑ B.Wilson. Empire of the Deep. Weidnefeild & Nicolson. London(2013) p624-5,
  6. ↑ N. Hall. Ships Monthly May 2008, p48
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Friedman N. British Destroyers and Frigates: The Second World War and After. Seaforth UK, (2012)
  8. ↑ N. van der Bijl. Confrontation. The War with Indonesia 1962–66. Pen & Sword (2007) UK, pp 134–5, 139
  9. ↑ Gunston, B. The Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft, 1875–1975. Motorbooks International, (rep Osprey, Reed, ed), WI, USA (2005) p. 425.
  10. ↑ N. Freidman. British Destroyers & Frigates. Seaforth. Barnsley, UK (2010) p195.
  11. ↑ Freidman. British Destroyers & frigates, UK (2010) p195.
  12. ↑ Wilson, B. Empire of the Deep. The Rise and Fall of the Royal Navy. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London (2013), p. 627 & spec, N. Hall, SM 12/20O8, p50, re HMS London role in Confrontation and Aden crisis as HMS Eagle escort 65-7.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Friedman N. British Destroyers and Frigates: The Second World War and After. Seaforth UK, (2006)
  14. ↑ Hall. Ships Monthly, Dec 2008, p51.
  15. ↑ N. Hall. County Class, SM, May 08, p51.
  16. ↑ "Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, first outfit)."
    Text from Defences Estimates
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 Navy Estimates, 1963–64, page 70, Table 3 (Programme): 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 1963
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 18.9 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 18.15 18.16 18.17 18.18 18.19 18.20 18.21 18.22 18.23 18.24 18.25 18.26 18.27 18.28 18.29 18.30 18.31 Moore, George, "From Daring to Devonshire" in Warship 2005, Conway, 2005, ISBN 1-84486-003-5-page 133.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 Defence Estimates, 1964–65, page 72, Table 3 (Programme): 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 1964
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Defence Estimates, 1967–68, page 75, Table 3 (Programme): 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 1967
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Defence Estimates, 1970–71, page XII-81, Table V: 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 1970
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Defence Estimates, 1971–72, page XII-81, Table V: 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 1971
  23. ↑ Hansard HC Deb 16 December 1974 vol 883 c316W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the approximate annual average refit cost per vessel for (a) a County-class destroyer and (b) a Leander-class frigate, 16 December 1974.
  24. ↑ Hansard HC Deb 16 July 1982 vol 27 cc485-6W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence, 16 July 1982.
  25. ↑ Hansard HC Deb 16 December 1974 vol 883 c316W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the approximate cost of a long refit of (a) a Leander-class frigate and (b) a County-class destroyer, 16 December 1974.
Bibliography

Further reading

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