This is a continuation of the article on Romanian frigates. The first part is HERE.
Kings and queens
As you already know from the previous parts, the beauty and pride of the entire Romanian people, the frigate Marasesti (F 111) for almost 20 years was the only and largest warship in the history of the Romanian Navy.
Therefore, in the period from 1985 to 2004, this ship was the flagship of the Romanian Navy, until the “royal couple” joined it: the frigates “Regele Ferdinand” and “Regina Maria”. It was then that the flotilla of frigates (Flotila de fregate) was created and Marasesti gave way to the flagship "Ferdinand".
The flagship of the Romanian Navy is the frigate "Regele Ferdinand" (F221).
British Retirees or "The Second Part of the Marlezon Ballet"
On January 14, 2003, Romania signed a contract with Great Britain, the subject of which was the purchase of two Type 22 frigates (Type 22) for the needs of the Romanian Navy. It was about the purchase of "Ships of Her Majesty" HMS Coventry (F98) and HMS London (F95) for 116 million pounds sterling. The ships were not new: they entered service in 1986 and were withdrawn from the British Navy in 2002.
This contract became part of an international scandal. It all started with the fact that in 1997 Great Britain reduced the size of the Royal Navy from 137 to 99 ships, and put up the ships decommissioned from the Navy. The so-called "shadow" Secretary of Defense and future Secretary of Defense, British conservative Liam Fox published an article in the influential Daily Mail in which he accused London of the fact that the proceeds from the sale of 38 ships amounted to 580 million pounds sterling. Of this amount, one fifth (116 million) was money for the sale of only 2 ships to Romania, and of the 116 million sent by Romania, only 200 thousand pounds came to the UK budget. A good deal, however!
Liam Fox accused the famous British company BAE Systems plc of fraud and damage to the state. Apparently, they threw the "fox" and did not share, but he raised a howl in the press …
* Fox (English) - fox.
An excursion into history
Little has been written about this type of ships in Russian, so I post everything that I found, translated and systematized.
Type 22 frigates (Type 22 Broadsword) are a class of frigates built for the needs of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. They were built in three series, each series (subclass) differed in both displacement and technical equipment, installed power plants and weapons.
A total of 14 frigates of the "22" type were built:
1st series (Batch 1): 4 ships of subclass “Broadsword” std. with a displacement of 4, 400 tons (side numbers F88 - F91);
Series 2 (Batch 2): 6 ships of the “Boxer” subclass std. with a displacement of 4, 800 tons (side numbers F92 - F98);
Series 3 (Batch 3): 4 ships of subclass “Cornwall” std. with a displacement of 5, 300 tons (side numbers F99 - F87).
After the reduction in the size of the Royal Navy, 7 ships from the first 2 series were sold and are in service with the following states:
Brazil: 4 ships: Greenhalgh (ex-Broadsword), Dodsworth (ex-Brilliant), Bosísio (ex-Brazen) and Rademaker (ex-Battleaxe);
Chile: 1 ship: “Almirante Williams” (ex-Sheffield);
Romania: 2 ships: Regele Ferdinand (ex-Coventry) and Regina Maria (ex-London).
2 more frigates were used as target ships and sunk, and the remaining 5 were scrapped.
The Turkish company LEYAL Ship Recycling Ltd. has been recycling Her Majesty's ships for many years. This is one of the largest specialized companies and its capacity allows processing up to 100 thousand tons of ferrous and non-ferrous metals per year.
One of the frigates sold to Romania, namely Coventry (F98), during its service under the flag of Great Britain, traveled 348, 372 nautical miles and spent more than 30 thousand sailing hours at sea.
Another of the ships sold to Romania, HMS London (F95), was the flagship of the Royal Navy during the first Gulf War. Two other frigates of the first series (HMS Brilliant and HMS Broadsword) participated in the war between Great Britain and Argentina for control of the Falklands.
During the conflict in the Falklands, HMS Broadsword (F88) was damaged but repaired. 11 years later, Broadsward again went on the warpath, but this time in the Adriatic (Operation Skirmish, Yugoslavia 1993). Then, 3 years later, in 95, the F88 frigate was sold to Brazil.
They know how to trade second-hand …
The last Type 22 frigate was withdrawn from the British Navy on June 30, 2011. This was the lead ship of the 3rd series HMS Cornwall (F99). The frigate could not be sold, so it was scrapped.
The Type 22 frigates were the largest and most well-equipped ships ever in the service of Her Majesty, as their direct successors, the Type 23 frigates, were smaller for economic reasons, and more modestly equipped.
Type 22 frigates are multipurpose ships, but they were developed taking into account the technological achievements of the USSR at the end of the Cold War, primarily to combat Soviet submarines.
At that time, the general defense doctrine determined the following goal for them: being attached to the American strike formations, to cover them from Soviet nuclear submarines.
The Type 22 frigates were designed to replace their predecessors, the entire family of Type 12 frigates: Whitby (Type 12), Rothesay (Type 12M) and Linder (Type 12I). In the post-war period, this is the most numerous type of British large warships and at the same time (according to the British themselves) one of the most successful types of British frigates.
Due to the decline of the era of naval artillery and the development of naval electronic equipment and guided missile weapons (URO), British destroyers were divided into narrow-purpose subclasses.
To provide anti-submarine escorts, a new independent class was allocated: a frigate, and to provide air defense ships - an air defense destroyer.
Thus, at first, Type 22 frigates were created as ASW vessels, but over time, the concept of general-purpose frigates developed and Type 22 ships were re-armed and reclassified as general-purpose frigates, and the differences between subclasses were blurred.
The role of Type 22 frigates in the structure of the Navy of those years can be judged from the list of requirements of Her Majesty's main naval headquarters, drawn up in 1967.
After the closure of the CVA-01 * project, the Royal Navy carried out a complete reassessment of the requirements for the ships of the future surface fleet, and came to the conclusion that the fleet needed the following five new types of ships:
1). Helicopter cruisers (anti-submarine cruisers) with a large air group, consisting of PLO helicopters. As a result, this requirement led to the creation of light aircraft carriers of the Invincible class.
2). Air defense destroyers: smaller and cheaper than County-class destroyers - led to the creation of Type 42 destroyers.
3). URO frigates: multipurpose ships with a displacement of 3000 ÷ 6000 tons, with rocket armament as a possible successor to the Leander class frigates (Type 12) - led to the creation of Type 22 frigates.
4). Patrol frigates: cheaper than Leander-class frigates - led to the creation of Amazon-class frigates (Project 21).
5). Minesweepers: As a possible successor to the Ton-class minesweeper - led to the creation of the Hunt-class minesweepers.
* Project CVA-01 - Construction of Queen Elizabeth-class heavy attack aircraft carriers. Launched in the mid-1960s, discontinued (before the start of construction of the lead ship) in February 1966.
To repel attacks from the air and defeat various air targets, the armament of promising aircraft carriers (future type "Invincible") included up to 2 launchers for the Sea Dart air defense system with ammunition load of up to 36 missiles. And among other new types of ships, air defense destroyers were naturally to be equipped with an increased ammunition load of missiles for the Sea Dart air defense system (20-22 missiles). After all, their main task is to provide air defense of ship groupings, therefore, each British aircraft carrier had to leave for combat service in remote regions of the World Ocean, accompanied by an air defense destroyer.
Although Type 12 frigates are significantly inferior to their successors, Type 22 frigates in terms of tonnage, a certain similarity can be seen in the underwater contours of the hulls of these types of frigates.
Since in 1960 the design department of the Admiralty was busy, and work on the design of URO frigates (type 22) was delayed, it was necessary to compensate for the lack of ships of this type. Therefore, as a temporary measure, design documentation for the construction of another type of ships was purchased from a private shipbuilding company. They later became known as Amazon-class frigates or Type 21 frigates.
It is not clear who designed the Type 22, but it is known that the documentation was completed by Yarrow specialists from Glasgow, and one of the departments of the Admiralty (Ship Department) was supervised and responsible for the project. The design of URO frigates (type 22) delayed the construction of patrol frigates (type 21) and the air defense destroyers (type 42) needed "yesterday".
Shipbuilders
Most of the Type 22 frigates (10 of 14) were built by a reputable company founded in 1865: Yarrow Shipyard from Glasgow, Scotland (Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited). Over the course of its long history, the Yarrow shipyard has changed several names: first it was called “Upper Clyde Shipbuilders”, then “British Shipbuilders”, then “GEC Marconi Marine” and finally in 1999 it was named “BAE Systems”.
3 more frigates, Sheffield (F96); Coventry (F98) and Chatham (F87), were built by one of the most famous shipbuilding companies in the world, the British company Swan Hunter, founded in 1880. In the 21st century, Swan Hunter closed her shipyard and focused only on design.
And an even older and no less respected company (founded in 1828), Cammell Laird, had already received a modest order for the construction of the penultimate frigate of the third series Campbeltown (F86). In 1986 it was privatized and taken over by Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd (VSEL). 1987 to 1993 3 Upper-class submarines left Cammell Laird's stocks, and then VSEL closed its Cammel Laird shipyard.
What's in a name?
Initially, it was planned to give the new types of frigates names in alphabetical order. So, the names of all new patrol frigates (type 21) began with the letter “A”: Amazon (F169), Antelope (F170), Ambuscade (F172) and so on. A total of 8 patrol frigates were built and the names of all eight began with the letter "A". Therefore, the names of all new URO frigates (type 22) had to start with the letter “B”.
At first it was, and the ships of the 1st series received the following names with the letter “B”: Broadsword (F88), Battleaxe (F89), Brilliant (F90) and Brazen (F91). The first 3 ships of the 2nd series also received their names starting with the letter "B": Boxer (F92), Beaver (F93), Brave (F94), but the war intervened: Great Britain fought with Argentina for control of the Falkland Islands. Among the losses of the British crown were 2 brand new Type 42 air defense destroyers HMS Sheffield (D80) and HMS Coventry (D118). Therefore, it was decided to rename 2 frigates under construction in honor of the sunken destroyers. As a result, the frigate with hull number F96, which received the name Bruiser at the beginning, was renamed Sheffield, and Boudicca (F98) - Coventry. The Bloodhound (F98), ordered a little earlier, and the construction of which had not yet begun, was also renamed and given the name London.
Since on their future successors, frigates "type 23", it was decided in advance to abandon the names in alphabetical order, and decided to name all 16 ships in honor of the British dukes, the type 23 is also known as frigates of the "Duke" class: (eng. Duke - Duke). Therefore, the lead ship of the Duke class (F230) was named Norfolk, after the Duke of Norfolk; F233 - Marlborough, in honor of the Duke of Marlborough, F231 - Argyll, in honor of the Duke of Argyll, and so on.
Well, the alphabetical progression in the names was continued by the frigates of the 3rd series (subclass "Cornwall"), but the names of all ships of this series already began with the letter "C": Cornwall (F99), Cumberland (F85), Campbeltown (F86) and finally, the closing one, Chatham (F87). The first 2 ships were named after the County-class heavy cruisers of the First World War.
Interesting Facts
The official sponsor (literal translation from English), but, most likely, the official person of the lead ship of the 3rd series (Cornwall, F99) was Her Highness Princess Diana of Wales. After Lady Dinah married Prince Charles, she received all her husband's titles, including the title of Duchess of Cornwall. In the ceremony of launching the frigate F99, Princess Diana played the main role.
The remaining 2 ships were named after the British cities of Campbeltown and Chatham. The name Campbeltown was already borne by another ship: the destroyer. It was built in the United States in 1919 and, while serving Uncle Sam, was known as the USS Buchanan (DD-131). Then, after the Dunkirk defeat, in September 1940 it was handed over to the British Navy and it was renamed HMS Campbeltown (I42).
It was this outdated destroyer that took part in Operation Chariot on March 28, 1942, during which an English destroyer of American ancestry managed to ram the sluices of the Saint-Nazaire dock. Then the explosive charge hidden on board detonated. Thanks to the destruction of the destroyer Campbeltown (I42) and the self-sacrifice of the paratroopers on board, the only dry dock on the entire Atlantic coast, which was capable of receiving the battleship Tirpitz, the most powerful ship of the Kriegsmarine left after the sinking of the Bismarck, was disabled until the end of the war. …
Well, the last ship type 22 (F87) was named after the oldest shipyard in Great Britain: it was located in Chatham (Kent). The shipyard in Chatham was founded in 1570 and liquidated in 1984: literally 1 year before the order for the construction of the F87 was placed. So they immortalized the memory of Chatham's shipbuilders …
The sponsor (official) of the frigate Chatham (F87) is Lady Roni Oswald, consort of the Supreme Commander and First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Julian Oswald.
By the way, they returned to the alphabetical system already in the 21st century.
All Type 45 destroyers, also known as 'Daring' type destroyers, were given the names of British destroyers of the 1930-50s, which began with the letter 'D': HMS Daring (D32), HMS Downtless (D33), HMS Diamond (D34), HMS Dragon (D35), HMS Defender (D36) and HMS Duncan (D37).
Start of construction
The order for the construction of the first type 22 frigate was given to the Yarrow shipyard in 1972. All 4 ships of the first series and the next 4 from the second series were built on it. Since the place of permanent basing of Type 22 ships was chosen by the Royal Navy's naval base Devonport, the length of the ships was dictated by the dimensions of the covered docks (Devonport Frigate Refit Complex) allocated for them.
Light cruiser HMS Cleopatra in one of the covered docks of the Devonport naval base. 1977th year. Photo: Michael Walters
3 covered dry docks naval base Devonport
In order to minimize the length of the shafts, the engine rooms were located in compartments located as close as possible to the stern. The ships were to be equipped with two five-blade adjustable-pitch propellers. And at the stern, behind the flight deck, it was decided to allocate space for a helicopter hangar almost the entire width of the ship to accommodate two deck helicopters.
On the ships of the first series, the CAAIS Combat Information and Control System (BIUS) from Ferranti was installed, and as a power plant - 2X Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A turbines (37, 540 shp / 28 MW) and 2X Rolls-Royce Tyne RM3C (9, 700 shp / 7.2 MW).
Work on the fulfillment of the order for the construction of ships of the first series proceeded in spurts, with frequent stops and approvals due to their relatively high cost. The fact is that their predecessors, the frigates of the Linder type (Type 12), cost the British crown 10 million pounds, the new patrol frigates of the Amazon type (Project 21) cost 20 million pounds each, and when placing an order for the first frigate of type 22, the unit cost was agreed on an amount of 30 million pounds. But the real cost of the first frigate type 22 HMS Broadsword after its commissioning in 1979 was, taking into account inflation, as much as 68 million pounds.
For example, the air defense destroyer HMS Glasgow (type 42), which was commissioned in the same 1979, cost the treasury 40 million pounds. Destroyers are a good thing, but the maritime superpower needs frigates too. Therefore, for the construction of the first type 22 frigate, they still constantly paid extra. It remains only to guess what scenes were accompanied by the knocking out of the next tranche.
Scheme of a frigate type 22 "HMS Broadsword" 1st series
After the construction of 4 frigates of type 22 (1st series, subclass “Broadsword”), the covered docks of the Davenport naval base, intended for frigates (Devonport Frigate Refit Complex), were decided to increase in length (and, most likely, in depth too).
Therefore, after lengthening the docks, it became possible to build and maintain ships of larger displacement in them. And if the total length of frigates of the 1st series (subclass "Broadsword") was 131 meters with a standard displacement of 4, 400 tons, then the length of frigates of the 2nd series (subclass "Boxer") was 146, 5 meters with a displacement of 4, 800 tons …
Differences between subclasses
On ships of the 2nd series (subclass "Boxer"), the stem was lengthened (sharpened).
The sharp stem was supposed to provide the ships with good seaworthiness. But along with the length of the ship and its displacement, its draft also increased: if the frigates of the 1st series were 6, 1 meters, then those of the 2nd (and the subsequent 3rd series) were already 6, 4 meters.
In 1982 (the year the order was placed for HMS "London") the cost of one Type 22 frigate almost doubled and reached £ 127 million. But this was not the limit: the total cost of the Boxer frigate (F92) after its commissioning in 1983 was, taking into account inflation, £ 147 million.
The third ship Brave (F94) was the most expensive: it cost £ 166 million. Perhaps due to the fact that it was equipped with Rolls-Royce Spey SM1C turbines.
* It is quite possible that starting with the 2nd series, shipbuilders reduced the height of the helicopter hangars and they could no longer accommodate the higher Westland Sea King, but only the Westland Lynx. At least I found information about this in the descriptions of HMS Boxer (F92) and HMS Beaver (F93).
Scheme of a frigate type 22 HMS "London" of the 2nd series
And since I'm talking about the differences between subclasses, let me highlight the main differences in Series 3 in a few words. This subclass is the most heavily armed of all three series built. They became them thanks to the conclusions made after the end of the conflict in the Falklands.
After that war, it became obvious that, in addition to missile weapons, British ships needed barrel (universal) artillery and more effective short-range air defense systems. General purpose artillery would be useful for firing at coastal targets, and reinforced anti-aircraft artillery - primarily for anti-missile defense of ships, as well as for engaging other air targets and light surface forces of the enemy.
Therefore, the armament on frigates of the 3rd series (subclass "Cornwall") differed from the ships of the first two series. On the bow, instead of the launcher for the Exocet anti-ship missiles, they installed a 114-mm universal ship mount 114 mm / 55 Mark 8. In addition, the ships equipped a 30-mm ZAK with a rotating barrel block Goalkeeper, aka Sea Vulcan 30.
* The 30-mm 7-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun "Goalkeeper" is a modification of the GAU-8 Avenger aircraft cannon, which is installed on the American A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft.
30-mm 7-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun "Goalkeeper"
The main armament of the frigates of the 3rd series consisted of:
2x launchers for anti-ship missiles RGM-84 Harpoon;
2x GWS-25 Sea Wolf short-range air defense missile launchers;
2x three-pipe 324 mm torpedo tubes Plessey STWS Mk 2;
Also on the ships were installed:
2x 8-barreled 130-mm BAE Systems Corvus IR jammers;
2x 6-barreled 130-mm PU for firing BAE Systems Mark 36 SRBOC dipole reflectors.
The length of the ships of the 3rd series (subclass "Cornwall") increased by 2 meters and amounted to 148, 1 meters with a displacement of 5, 300 tons and a draft of 6, 4 meters.
And the stem in the underwater part ended with a boule (drop-shaped thickening), the shape of which is optimal from the point of view of hydrodynamic resistance. The bule could well have placed a sonar. The ships of the 3rd series are equipped with 2 Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A turbines and 2 cruising Rolls-Royce Tyne RM3C turbines.
Schematic of a frigate type 22 HMS "Cornwall" of the 3rd series
The author would like to thank Bongo for the advice.
