Type 22 frigate

Broadsword, Boxer

It was originally envisaged that all Type 22s would have names beginning with 'B' (Broadsword, etc.), following the 'A' names used for Type 21s (Amazon, etc.). This changed after the Falklands War when two replacement ships were ordered for the destroyers sunk (Sheffield and Coventry) and were named to commemorate them. Another vessel ordered earlier but not yet started, which was to be named "Bloodhound" was renamed "London".

Cornwall

The alphabetical progression was re-established with the Batch 3 ships (Cornwall, etc.) before being temporarily abandoned with the Type 23 class, named after Dukedoms (Norfolk, Lancaster, etc.). The Royal Navy's latest escort class (the Type 45 or Daring class) have re-introduced the alphabetical progression, using destroyer names from the 1930s and 1950s.

The names selected for the four Batch 3 ships were a mixture: two, Cornwall and Cumberland, revived County-class names previously carried both by First World War-era armoured cruisers, and by Second World War-era heavy cruisers. The other Batch 3s, Chatham and Campbeltown, were Town names, the former reviving a 1911 light cruiser name, and the latter commemorating the most famous of the US destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940; the name for HMS Chatham was selected as a salute to the Medway town, where the naval dockyard, established in 1570, had closed in 1984.

Design

The Type 22 was designed to be a specialist anti-submarine warfare vessel as part of the Royal Navy's contribution to NATO. During Royal Navy service the ships evolved into general purpose frigates with weapons for use against other surface ships, aircraft and submarines. They were built in three batches giving rise to three sub-classes, the first Broadsword of four ships, the second Boxer of six ships and the third and final, Cornwall of four ships.

The four Broadswords (which included two Falklands War veterans) were sold to Brazil in the mid 1990s. Romania has acquired and modernised two of the Batch 2 ships, while a third was purchased by Chile.

During their Royal Navy service the ships had enhanced command, control and co-ordination facilities that resulted in their often being used as flagships on deployments.

Evolution

Following the cancellation of the aircraft carrier programme CVA-01 in 1966, the Royal Navy undertook a reappraisal of the surface fleet, and concluded that the following five new ship types were required:

Of these, the air defence destroyer appeared to had been given highest priority, the imperative being to get Sea Dart to sea in numbers to replace the air defence capability which would be lost with the retirement of the carrier fleet.

Visually, the Type 12 lineage in the Type 22 design is less than obvious, though there are said to be similarities in the underwater hull form. Due to the workload of the Admiralty design department in the 1960s, a private design (Type 21) was purchased as an interim stop-gap whilst the Type 22 was under development. The design process, already hampered by the priority given to the Type 21 and the urgently needed Type 42, was further protracted by attempts to produce a common Anglo-Dutch design. The first Type 22 order was placed in 1972 with Yarrow Shipbuilders; Yarrow undertook much of the detailed design work whilst overall responsibility remained with the Ship Department at Bath.

The length of the first four Type 22s was dictated by the dimensions of the undercover Frigate Refit Complex at Devonport Dockyard. The ships would be powered by a combination of Olympus and Tyne gas turbines in a COGOG (COmbined Gas turbine Or Gas turbine) arrangement. Machinery spaces were sited as far aft as possible to minimise shaft lengths. The after configuration was dictated by the requirement for a large hangar and a full-width flight deck.

Weapons fit was determined by the primary ASW role combined with a perceived need for a general purpose capability. The principal ASW weapons systems were the ship's Lynx helicopter and triple torpedo tubes (STWS), with 2087 towed array sonar a key part of the sensors fit. Air defence was provided in the form of two 'six-pack' launchers for the Seawolf (GWS 25) point-defence missile system. Surface warfare requirements were met by the provision of four Exocet SSM launchers, the standard RN fit at that time. A pair of L/60 Bofors were fitted in the first batch for patrol and junk busting on summer Indian Ocean deployments, but proved expedient in the Falkland were T22 captains considered they interfered with concentrating on Seawolf setup.

The Broadsword design was unique to the Royal Navy in lacking a main gun armament. Although some of the Leander class frigates had lost their main gun armament during upgrades, Broadsword was the first to be designed from the beginning without a large calibre gun turret. This changed with the introduction of the Batch III ships.

Ordering of Type 22s proceeded slowly, in part because of the comparatively high unit cost of the ships. The unit cost of the last Type 12Ms had been about £10m; Type 21s cost around £20m each; when the first Type 22s were ordered, unit costs were estimated at £30m though, by the time that the first ship (HMS Broadsword) commissioned in 1979, inflation had driven this figure up to £68m, which was far higher than the cost of the contemporary Type 42s (HMS Glasgow, also commissioned in 1979, cost £40m).

After the first four ("Batch I") ships, the design was "stretched", with the Frigate Refit Complex suitably enlarged. Visually, and in addition to the increase in length, the biggest difference was the sharply raked stem, usually indicative of bow sonar (though none of the Batch II ships was thus fitted). An important addition to the Batch II group was a new Computer Assisted Command System (CACS-1), replacing the CAAIS fitted to the Batch I ships.This could track up to 500 targets, including those detected by the ships passive towed array and ESM The most significant change in this group of six Type 22 frigates is much more sophisticated electronic warfare systems, particularly the Classic Outboard system for the intercept of Soviet naval and submarine communications. This very sophisticated and specialised versions of the Type 22 were specifically approved by Prime Minister James Callaghan. The larger hull also improved sea keeping, but never achieved the expected quietness with towed arrays, according to Captain Doug Littlejohns of the Type 22, HMS London (due to failure to raft mount the diesel generators) in operations in the UK-Iceland- Greenland gap where they were expected to play an important role in preventing and monitoring the passage of Soviet naval units a critical stage of the Cold War. A revised machinery installation was adopted from HMS Brave onwards, with Spey turbines replacing the previous Olympus. The future machinery arrangement would be COGAG (Combined Gas turbine And Gas turbine). By 1982, the quoted unit cost of a Type 22 had risen to £127m.

This might have been the end of the Type 22 programme had it not been for the Falklands War (1982), in which the two ships of the class present (Broadsword and Brilliant) acquitted themselves well. Replacements for ships lost in the South Atlantic were all of this class.

Batch 3

The last four ships of the class (the Batch III ships Cornwall, Cumberland, Campbeltown and Chatham) were of a greatly improved design. Reflecting lessons learned in the Falklands, the weapons fit was changed, becoming more optimised to a general warfare role; the only major weapon system shared with the previous vessels was the pair of six-cell Seawolf launchers. The ships were fitted with the 4.5" (114 mm) gun, primarily for NGS (Naval Gunfire Support for land forces). Exocet was replaced by the superior Harpoon with eight GWS 60 missile launchers fitted laterally abaft the bridge, and each ship would carry a Goalkeeper CIWS (Close-In Weapon System).

In their final form, the Type 22s were the largest frigates ever built for the Royal Navy – the follow-on Type 23 class would be appreciably smaller ships. Reflecting this, Type 22s were often deployed as flagships for NATO Task Groups.

Construction programme

On 11 January 1985, Mr. Dalyell asked the Secretary of State for Defence: "what is the latest cost estimate of a type 22 frigate, with stores, spare parts and ammunition." The Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Lee, replied: "The average cost of a batch III type 22 frigate is currently estimated at about £140 million at 1984–85 prices. The cost of embarked helicopters, the first outfit of stores, spare parts and ammunition are estimated at about £18 million at the same price level."

Availability

In February 1998, the Secretary of State for Defence, Dr John Reid said: "Type 22 frigates achieved approximately 82 to 86 per cent. average availability for operational service in each of the last five years. This discounts time spent in planned maintenance."

Ships – disposal and current state

In May 2000, the Secretary of State for Defence was asked: "what was the planned service life of (a) HMS London, (b) HMS Beaver, (c) HMS Boxer and (d) HMS Brave; and what was the forecast date for withdrawal from Royal Navy service, prior to the decision in the Strategic Defence Review to dispose of them." The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, John Spellar, replied: "The planned service for each ship was 18 years. The additional information is given in the table." Note that the 18 years was dated from the date of acceptance, not the date first commissioned.

In July 2000, the Secretary of State for Defence was asked: when he planned to withdraw the remaining Type 22 Batch II frigates from service. The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, John Spellar, replied: "Plans for the withdrawal from service of the Type 22 Batch 2 frigates currently in service are as follows:"