Rebuilding the Royal Navy by David K. Brown George Moore

Author:David K. Brown, George Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473817494
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Artist’s impression of the Type 25. When the Type 24 failed to attract customers the design team developed it into a ship with almost the capability of a Type 22 at three-quarters the cost. It was not adopted, but much of the thinking, including the diesel-electric quiet machinery, went into the Type 23. (MoD)

Corvettes (c1963)

The bottom of the range was Study 35225 of 1960 tons with twin diesels giving 20,000shp and a speed of 26.5kts.26 Armament was a single 40mm and twin mortar Mark X, costing £4 million. Its data handling gear could transmit to an Ikara-fitted ship. For £6.5 million (Leander £5.25 million) one got a ship of 2700 tons, a 30,000shp steam plant giving 27kts, carrying Ikara (24 missiles and NDB) and a 4.5in gun.

During the development of the ‘Castle’ class OPV design (see Chapter 10), we had a model made to show at the RN Equipment Exhibition showing possible heavily-armed versions. There were no calculations to support these schemes but they were probably feasible. However, there were no customers and we did not proceed. As Christmas approached, we had a little spare effort and for two weeks the author put the section on to the design of a towedarray vessel based on the ‘Castles’. This was an interesting exercise with some more fundamental implications. The vessel had to be quiet which meant most equipments had to be to warship standards, and electrical power supplies had to be stable in voltage and frequency. All this meant building in a ‘warship’ yard with high overheads and led to an estimated price of £25 million without armament instead of the £6 million for the OPV. It would have cost about £35 million fully equipped. This is about the most expensive ship that may be seen as ‘expendable’. Giving a reasonable self-defence capability would have brought it close to the Type 23 in cost, well over £100 million. There are ‘zones’, such as this gap of £35–£l 10 million in which warships are not viable; there is a similar but bigger gap for cheap aircraft carriers.

The ship was lengthened about 10m to accommodate the towed array abaft the helicopter deck. The deck could accept any RN helicopter and there were refuelling and limited rearming facilities but no hangar or maintenance facilities. After some debate, we added a single 30mm gun ‘to prevent hijacking’. We looked at increased speed but the form was unsuitable and a better form would have involved lightweight structure, adding further to the cost. We looked very briefly at a SWATH and also at a very long range version.27

Even some wind-propelled variants were considered. (MoD)

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