Salisbury-class frigate

HMS Lincoln, 1972
Class overview
Name: Salisbury class
Operators:
Succeeded by: Leander class
Built: 1952–1959
In commission:
  • 1957–1985 (British service)
  • 1978– (Bangladesh service)
Planned: 7
Completed: 4
Cancelled: 3
Active: 1 in Bangladesh
Retired: 3
General characteristics
Type: Frigate
Displacement:
  • 2,170 tons standard
  • 2,400 tons full load
Length: 340 ft (100 m) o/a
Beam: 40 ft (12 m)
Draught: 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
Propulsion:
  • 8 × Admiralty Standard Range ASR1 diesels, 14,400 shp (10,738 kW), 2 shafts
  • 220 tons fuel oil[1]
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:
  • Type 960 air search radar, later Type 965 AKE-2
  • Type 293Q target indication radar, later Type 993n
  • Type 982 aircraft direction radar, later Type 986
  • Type 277Q height finding radar, later Type 278
  • Type 974 navigation radar, later Type 978
  • Type 285 fire control radar on director Mark 6M
  • Type 262 fire control on STAAG mount
  • Type 1010 Cossor Mark 10 IFF
  • Type 174 search sonar
  • Type 170 attack sonar
Armament:

The Type 61 Salisbury class were a class of four British aircraft direction (AD) (or radar picket) frigates built for the Royal Navy in the 1950s.[2][3]

Design

These ships were related to the Type 41 Leopard-class frigates, but with reduced armament (one twin 4.5 inch mount versus two) to make way for more aircraft direction equipment, particularly the four-ton radar antenna of the Type 965 (AKE-2). Unlike the four Battle-class AD conversions, the primary role of the Type 61 was not operations with fast carrier groups, for which their diesel power plant lacked the speed. The role of the Type 61 was as a seaworthy air ocean surveillance ship and air control ship to escort slow task forces, such as amphibious task forces. By the end of 1978 all had been relegated to non-combat roles, with one sold to Bangladesh.

The primary aircraft direction equipment fitted to the Type 61s was initially Type 960 (rapidly updated to Type 965 (AKE-2)) radar for aircraft warning and Type 982M radar for a degree of 3D cover and better air control over land. The Type 965 (AKE-2) had a large "double bedstead" antenna and the Type 982M radar had a smaller "hayrake" antenna. The Seacat missile system was fitted to Lincoln in a long refit from 1966–68 and in Salisbury from 1967-70. It was the same GWS 20 optically guided system being refitted at the time to the Rothesay-class frigates. Llandaff continued to carry the twin MK 5 Bofors until sold to Bangladesh. In the late 1960s Lincoln, Salisbury, Llandaff and the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Bulwark were all refitted with the new Type 986 radar using the 982 antenna, as a partial substitute for the 984 3D radar capability lost with the phase out of the RN strike carriers. 986 radar was intended to partially replace one of the roles of 984 in giving more accurate, short range definition of closing air targets out to about 120 kilometres (75 mi), than 965 radar could provide. It was only a partial replacement as it lacked the 984 system's ability to rank and prioritise large numbers of targets for interrogation and air interception. The 965 twin array radar was limited and obsolete by the 1970s;[4] the 986 was a clearer radar with more than the minimal MTI, and capability for tracking air targets over land compared with the solid state 966 version of 965M. 986's usefulness was limited by the slow speed of the Salisbury-class ships, and a policy decision was made in 1974 that only anti-submarine frigates would be operational in the frigate fleet from then on. Therefore, for the rest of the decade Salisbury and Lincoln alternated between the standby squadron and lengthy re-activations, under a number of pretexts.

Construction programme

Pennant Name Builder Ordered Laid Down Launched Accepted into service[5] Commissioned Estimated building cost[6] Fate
F32 Salisbury (a) HM Dockyard, Devonport
(b) Vickers Armstrong (Engineers) Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness [7]		 21 August 1951 [8] 23 January 1952 [9] 25 June 1953 [9] 27 February 1957 [7] 27 February 1957 [9] £2,900,000 [7] Sale to Egypt cancelled 1978 whilst on delivery trip. May 1980 harbour training ship Devonport. Sunk as target 30 September 1985.[9][10]
F59 Chichester (a) The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Glasgow
(b) British Polar Engines Ltd, Glasgow [11]		 28 June 1951 [8] 26 June 1953 [9] 21 June 1955 [9] May 1958 [11] 16 May 1958 [9] £3,291,000 [11] Converted to harbour guardship Hong Kong 1973; sold for breaking up 17 March 1981.[9][10]
F61 Llandaff (a) R & W Hawthorn Leslie and Co Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne
(b) British Polar Engines Ltd, Glasgow [11]		 28 June 1951 [8] 27 August 1953 [9] 30 November 1955 [9] April 1958 [11] 11 April 1958 [9] £3,393,000 [11] To Bangladesh 10 December 1978 as Umar Farooq.[9][12] Wrongly claimed sold for breaking up in April 1983.[10] Not scrapped, still in active service.[13]
F99 Lincoln (a) The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Govan, Glasgow
(b) Cammell Laird and Co (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd, Birkenhead [14]		 28 June 1951 [8] 1 June 1955 [9] 6 April 1959 [9] July 1960 [14] 7 July 1960 [9] £3,685,000 [14] Sale to Egypt in 1978 cancelled. August 1979 recommissioned briefly as submarine target.[10] Intended to be sold to Bangladesh in 1982,[9] though this transfer did not take place.[12] Broken up 1983.[10]

Three further ships of the class were planned. Two of these, intended as Exeter and Gloucester, were cancelled under the 1957 Defence Review, while Coventry was suspended. It was hoped to order Coventry in 1961, but in the event it was decided to order the planned hull as a Leander-class frigate that became HMS Penelope.[9]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Gardiner, p. 157
  2. ↑ Purvis,M.K., 'Post War RN Frigate and Guided Missile Destroyer Design 1944-1969', Transactions, Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), 1974
  3. ↑ Marriott,Leo, 'Royal Navy Frigates Since 1945', Second Edition, ISBN 0-7110-1915-0, Published by Ian Allan Ltd (Surrey, UK), 1990
  4. ↑ N. Freidman. British Destroyers & Frigates. The Second World War & After. Chatham Publishing, UK (2006), p162.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ "Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, First Outfits)."
    Text from Defences Estimates
  7. 1 2 3 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
  8. 1 2 3 4 Moore, George, The dawn of the Salisbury, Leopard and Whitby class frigates in Warship, 2004, pub Conways, 2004, ISBN 0-85177-948-4 page 134.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Gardiner, Robert Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995, pub Conway Maritime Press, 1995, 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.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Friedman, Norman British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After, Chatham. London, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84832-015-4 page 338.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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
  12. 1 2 Gardiner, Robert Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995, pub Conway Maritime Press, 1995, ISBN 0-85177-605-1 page 23.
  13. ↑ Deccan Chronicle, Bangladesh Navy ship docks in city, 19 December 2010
  14. 1 2 3 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

External links

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