Planned 2 Retired 2 | In commission 1960–1998 Completed 2 | |
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Builders Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness | ||
The Almirante class were two destroyers built for the Chilean Navy by Vickers in Barrow in Furness, UK, in 1960, named after admirals. Their weapons and largely Marconi sensors were in advance of the RN Daring class, but their internal layout resembled that of the Battle class. They served until the late 1990s. They were fitted with a unique Vickers-designed 4-inch dual purpose naval gun, which fired up to 50rpm. The gun was in advance of the standard RN 4.5 inch guns, more automated and reliable than the Tiger-class 3- and 6-inch mounts, but not water-cooled. It was rejected for RN use because of doubt about its sustained firing, the large stocks of surplus WW2, single 4.5- and twin 4-inch guns which the RN claimed wrongly were close to the new 4-inch N(R) in performance, and mainly because it was a private out-of-house, Vickers design The ships were modernised in Britain in 1975, and decommissioned in the late 1990s.
Contents
Programme
Chile decided to upgrade its destroyer fleet in the early 1950s and turned to British yards to fulfill the order. Bids were received from Vickers and Thornycroft (Freedman 2006); the Vickers design was chosen. The order was announced in January 1954 and finalised in 1955. The sensors were a mixture of British- and Netherlands-made radars.
Chile had considered buying a second pair of destroyers in the mid-1960s (Freedman 2006) but instead purchased two Condell-class frigates, a derivative of the Leander class, instead.
Ships
Vickers offered two similar ships to the Colombian Navy (Freedman 2006) but the Colombians bought two Halland-class destroyers from Sweden instead.