Type 21 frigate

Template:HMS during Exercise RIMPAC 86

The Type 21 frigate, or Amazon-class frigate, was a British Royal Navy general-purpose escort that was designed in the late 1960s, built in the 1970s and served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s.<ref name="Marriott" />

DevelopmentEdit

In the mid-1960s, the Royal Navy (RN) had a requirement for a replacement for the diesel-powered Template:Sclass (Type 41) anti-aircraft frigates and Template:Sclass (Type 61) air direction frigates. While the Royal Navy's warships were traditionally designed by the Ministry of Defence's Ship Department based at Bath, private shipyards (in particular Vosper Thorneycroft) campaigned for the right to design and build a ship to meet this requirement. Vospers claimed that, by ignoring what they claimed to be the conservative design practices followed by the MoD team at Bath, they could deliver the new frigate at a significantly lower price (£3.5 million compared with the £5 million price of the contemporary Template:Sclass), while being attractive to export customers.<ref name="Conways47 p522">Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 522.</ref><ref name="worst p171">Preston 2002, p. 171.</ref>

The class was ordered under political and Treasury pressure for a relatively cheap, yet modern, general purpose escort vessel which would be attractive to governments and officers of South America and Australasia: the traditional export markets of British shipyards. It was also envisaged as an out-of-area RN gunboat that would retain UK presence in those areas, as well as the Caribbean and the Persian Gulf; essentially replacing the diesel-powered Type 41s and Type 61s and the combined steam and gas-powered Type 81 frigates with smaller crewed vessels. The RN staff disliked the idea and would have preferred to continue to develop steam types – in the RN's case, the Type 12I Leander class, which was regarded as a successful and quiet anti-submarine hunter, but was seen by the politicians as dated and by the Treasury and export-oriented shipyards as too expensive to market.Template:Citation needed

The development of Vosper's own export designs, the Mk 5 for Iran and the Mk 7 for Libya, increased the pressure on the Admiralty to accept this line of naval development, which seemed to offer a cheap export frigate with a range of Template:Convert, a top speed of Template:Convert, a superficially good armament of the new Mark 8 4.5-inch (113 mm) gun, facilities for a Westland Wasp helicopter, anti-ship missiles and two triple lightweight Seacat missile launchers. When plans for the new Template:Ship were finalised in 1968, the Admiralty board accepted that its paper specifications were unanswerable<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and they would have to allow the shipyards to develop a low cost fill in anti-submarine warfare and general purpose version for the RN that would be stretched and fully gas turbine-powered rather than combined diesel and gas like the Mk 5 and Mk 7. In reality, it was a much more difficult design, with the lack of heavy propulsion machinery low in the hull to balance the top weight of bulky superstructure. The fitting of Tyne gas turbines for cruising, instead of the diesels used in the Iranian and Libyan versions, meant fuel consumption and cost would be high, which was a tremendous problem for the Royal Navy in the early 1980s when the austerity of early Thatcherism cut the Royal Navy fuel allowance and meant that most frigates spent more time tied up, rather than at sea in 1980–1981; and despite the smaller crew, running costs of the Type 21 were ten percent higher than those of the Leanders.Template:Citation needed

The Type 21 would provide the shipyards with experience in building fully gas turbine powered ships and provide them with useful work for the shipyards while the Type 42 destroyer and Type 22 frigate would not be ready until the mid-to-late 1970s. As the Admiralty design board were busy with the latter, the Type 21 project was given to the private shipyards of Vosper Thornycroft and Yarrow. The unmistakably yacht-like and rakish lines were indicative of their commercial design.Template:Citation needed

At one stage, it was hoped to build a joint design that would meet both the Royal Navy's requirement for a low-cost Patrol Frigate and Australia's General Purpose Escort requirement, with discussions between the two navies beginning in 1967,<ref name="Fried p292-4">Friedman 2008, pp. 292–294.</ref> with Australia, who hoped to build a series of Type 21s in Australian shipyards, part-funding design work on the proposal.<ref name="Conways47 p522"/> The requirements of the two navies were significantly different, with Australia wanting higher speeds (Template:Convert rather than the Template:Convert requirement of the Royal Navy) and American armament (including Sea Sparrow missiles and a [[5"/54 caliber Mark 45 gun|Template:Convert Mark 45 gun]]). Australia pulled out of the project in November 1968, later refining its requirements into the Australian light destroyer project.<ref name="Fried p294-5">Friedman 2008, pp. 294–295.</ref> After the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) DDL was cancelled the RAN and Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) reconsidered the Type 21 but still found it too expensive,<ref>A. Preston. (2002) 'Type 21 Anti Sub Frigate' in The World's Worst Warships p. 172.</ref> and considered the UK gun and radar inferior to the United States Navy options.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Australia ordered the US Template:Sclass design in 1976.

A contract for detailed design of the new frigate to meet Royal Navy requirements and to build the first example was placed in March 1969. By this time cost had crept up to £7.3 million, more than Leander-class frigates.<ref name="Fried p295">Friedman 2008, p. 295.</ref>

Attempts continued to sell frigates derived from the Type 21 to export customers, including Argentina.<ref name="Conways47 p522"/> A broad-beam derivative armed with vertical-launch Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles was offered to Pakistan in 1985.<ref name="cf86 p372">Couhat and Baker 1986, p. 372.</ref>

The first of the eight built, Template:HMS, entered service in May 1974.

DesignEdit

These ships were the Royal Navy's first privately designed warships for many years.<ref name="Marriott" /> They were also the first design to enter service with the Royal Navy to be solely powered by gas-turbine engines, with two Rolls-Royce Tynes for cruising and two Rolls-Royce Olympus for high speeds arranged in a combined gas or gas (COGOG) arrangement.<ref name="Conways47 p522"/> The design had a large superstructure in relation to the volume of the main hull (below No 1 Deck) and made use of large amounts of aluminium alloy in the superstructure with the aim of reducing the topweight. However the design team miscalculated the weight of the ‘Outfit’ in and on the superstructure. The height of the superstructure exacerbated the error. Worries later surfaced about aluminium’s resilience to fire, particularly following a major fire on Amazon in 1977 during which aluminium ladders distorted, preventing fire-fighting teams from reaching the blaze, and its ability to withstand blast damage. Later British warships avoided aluminium for superstructure and load-bearing structure, and reverted to steel. <ref name="worst p171,5-6">Preston 2002, pp. 171, 175–176.</ref>

As delivered, the Type 21s were armed with a single 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun forward, and a four-round launcher for the SeaCat surface-to-air missile aft. The Italian Selenia Orion-10X lightweight fire control radar was adopted to control both the gun and the SeaCat missile (as the GWS-24 system) in an effort to save weight. A Type 992Q air/surface radar was fitted, but a long-range air-search radar was not provided. A hangar and flight deck were provided for a single helicopter, at first the Westland Wasp. The CAAIS was provided to integrate the ship's weapons and sensor systems and provide the crew with all the relevant information they required to fight the ship, as and when they needed it.<ref name="Conways47 p522"/><ref name="cf86 p193-4">pp. 193–194, Couhat, J.L., Baker III, A.D. 'Combat Fleets of the World 1986-1987', Template:ISBN, US Naval Institute Press, 1986</ref>

In terms of automation, systems integration and habitability, they were well in advance of many of the ships that they replaced, such as the Type 81 (Tribal-class) frigate and Type 12M Template:Sclass - the latter's basic design could be traced back to 1945.

ModificationsEdit

MoD discovered the error in weight and Vertical Centre of Gravity about 6 months after the first of class was launched. When they entered service, the Type 21s were criticised for being under-armed in relation to their size and cost.<ref name="Marriott" /> A programme was put in hand to increase their firepower by fitting four French-built MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles. These were sited in front of the bridge screen aft of the forecastle, displacing the Corvus countermeasure launchers to amidships. This improvement was quickly carried out to all ships of the class during their build period except Amazon, Antelope and Ambuscade; Amazon and Ambuscade were fitted with Exocet in 1984/85. The Exocets were located in two pairs and the missiles would deploy across the ship and clear the opposite side of the vessel to their launchers in flight.

The design error in weight and stability had more than wiped out the margins that had been intended for replacing Seacat by the more capable Seawolf and the Type 2016 bow sonar.<ref name="A. Preston 1982 p21">A. Preston. Sea Combat off the Falklands. Willow Collins (1982) London, p. 21.</ref> The ships lacked the margins of weight and space customary to in-house Royal Navy warship designs for major modernization.<ref name="A. Preston 1982 p21"/><ref name="A. Preston 2002 p172">A. Preston. Type 21 Anti Submarine Frigates in The World's Worst Warships. Conway Maritime Press (2002) London, p. 172.</ref>

Five modernisation proposals for the Type 21s were considered by the Royal Navy<ref name="A. Preston 1982 p21"/> but rejected by 1979, when it was 'reluctantly' decided not to modernize the class,<ref name="A. Preston 1982 p21"/> and it was estimated that they would be laid up by 1988.<ref>A. Preston. Sea Combat off the Falklands (1982) pp. 12–13.</ref>

The small Wasp helicopter was replaced by the vastly more capable Westland Lynx when it became available. Compared to the Wasp, the Lynx was faster and carried its own sensors, plus more and better weapons. As and when ships came in for refit, ship-launched anti-submarine torpedoes were also fitted (though not in Amazon<ref name="Lippiett 1990">R.J. Lippiett. Type 21 - Modern Combat Ships 5. Ian Allan (1990), pp.95</ref>), in the form of two STWS-1 triple-tube launchers capable of firing United States USN/NATO-standard Mark 44 or Mark 46 torpedoes. After the Falklands War, two more 20 mm Oerlikon guns were mounted on some ships of the class, one each side of the hangar, to provide extra close-in armament. The first of these guns was actually salvaged from the wreck of Antelope by divers, and was fitted to Avenger, where it carried the slogan 'Antelope's Avenger' on its gunshield.<ref>Lippiett 1990, pp.91</ref>

AnalysisEdit

Criticism was levelled at the performance of the type in the Falklands conflict.<ref name="Marriott" /> The ships developed cracks in their decks due to the different strength and fatigue properties of steel and aluminium. This was a vulnerability particularly demonstrated under the severe weather conditions that they encountered in the South Atlantic. Steel reinforcing plates were eventually fitted down the sides of the ships and on No. 1 Deck. Although built to a tight budget and design specification (and carrying insufficient anti-aircraft weaponry) they distinguished themselves in a theatre for which they had not been designed. As shore bombardment platforms and in lethal, accurate gunfire support for the Royal Marines and British Army landing at San Carlos, they were superb, pinning down any possibility of Argentine army counterattack,<ref>F. Southby-Tailyour. Reasons in writing. A Commando's view of the Falklands War. Leo Cooper (1993) London, pp. 207–208</ref> but they remained shallow water surface fighting ships, designed for Vosper's export market to provide nations like Libya and Iran with the firepower to replace the United States/UK as western supporting stabilisers under the Kissinger/Healy strategy. The lack of margin to accept the Type 2031 towed array sealed the fate of the class.<ref>N. Friedman. British Destroyers & Frigates. (2006) p. 296.</ref>

The class was criticised for being overcrowded: at Template:Convert, they had 177 crewmen compared to Template:Convert and 185 crewmen for the Type 23 frigate. This was important at a time when the Royal Navy was facing a manpower shortage. However the standard of accommodation for the officers was better than the RN average and the senior ratings enjoyed separate cabins – unlike the petty officers of the Type 42 destroyer of the same era, who slept in bunk rooms. The ratings' accommodation was also improved, with four-man sleeping berths leading off from the communal mess deck; again, far better than those of the Type 42 destroyer. In essence, the standard of accommodation and fitting were better, especially for officers, because it was a design intended to attract export orders. Higher automation and the new Mk 8 4.5-inch automatic gun combined with an electronic fit meant that the Type 21 was in some ways simpler than that of the Leanders or Type 42. The Type 21 class lacked both the long range Type 965 radar<ref>A. Preston. Sea Combat off the Falklands. Willow (1982) London, pp. 20–21.</ref> carried by most UK warships and the Limbo mortar with its associated sonar.

ServiceEdit

Except for HMS Amazon,<ref name="Marriott">pp. 105–114, Marriott, Leo, 'Royal Navy Frigates Since 1945', Second Edition, Template:ISBN, Published by Ian Allan Ltd (Surrey, UK), 1990</ref> all the class took part in the 1982 Falklands War as the 4th Frigate Squadron.<ref name="Adm White Obituary">Template:Cite news</ref> They were heavily involved, performing extensive shore-bombardment missions and providing anti-submarine and anti-aircraft duties for the task force. On 10 May, HMS Alacrity and Arrow probed through Falkland Sound at night searching for minefields that might have impeded landings and operations, almost as expendable hullsTemplate:Citation needed. Alacrity engaged and sank an Argentine naval supply vessel in the Sound. On exiting the Sound at daybreak, they were attacked by the Argentine submarine San Luis, which fired two torpedoes; one hit ArrowTemplate:'s submarine towed decoy (as intended) and the other bounced off her hull, having failed to arm itself. Two ships were lost: Template:HMS was hit by bombs dropped by Argentine aircraft on 21 May and consumed by fire; Template:HMS was hit by bombs on 23 May, one of which detonated while a bomb disposal team was attempting to defuse it on 24 May. The ship caught fire and set off her magazines, resulting in her breaking her back and sinking.

Sale to PakistanEdit

The six surviving Type 21 frigates were sold to Pakistan in 1993–1994 for 60 million US dollars. The Exocet and Seacat were removed before the sale and the frigates were given a basic refit at Karachi with US Harpoon anti-ship missile. Three of them were fitted with Phalanx CIWS, the others with 40mm Bofors L70 guns. The class was renamed by the Pakistan Navy as the Template:Sclass, after the first vessel that was acquired, Tariq, formerly Template:HMS. Only two of the six remain in service: Badr and Babur were both decommissioned in 2014, while Tippu Sultan and Shah Jahan were sunk as targets in 2020 and 2021 respectively.<ref name="Defense Brief, 2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="defbrief">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By the closing years of the class the Harpoon was generally seen as slow and obsolete and in 2008 Harpoon was removed. The Pakistan frigates were given the Chinese 6-cell LY-60N Hunting Eagle surface-to-air missile system.<ref>Global Security.Org Article on 'Tariq Class (UK Amazon Type 21)' (Retrieved 9 March 2016)</ref>

ShipsEdit

Pennant	Name	Hull builder	Ordered	Laid down	Launched	Accepted into serviceTemplate:Efn	Commissioned	Est. building costTemplate:Efn	Fate
F169	Amazon	Vosper Thornycroft, Woolston	26 March 1969 <ref name=MCS5p16>Lippiett, John Modern Combat Ships 5, Type 21, pub Ian Allan, 1990, Template:ISBN page 16.</ref>	6 November 1969 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	26 April 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	19 July 1974 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	11 May 1974 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£16.8M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1>Template:Citation</ref>	To Pakistan as PNS Babur. Decommissioned in December 2014.
F170	Antelope	Vosper Thornycroft	11 May 1970 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	23 March 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	16 March 1972 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	30 June 1975 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	16 July 1975 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£14.4M <ref> Template:Citation. Hansard: HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc357-8W 357W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding warship costs, 23 October 1989. Moore, John Jane's Fighting Ships, 1982-83, pub Jane's Publishing Co Ltd, 1982, Template:ISBN page 554.</ref>	Bombed by Argentinian Air Force Douglas A-4 Skyhawks on 23 May 1982 and sank following day in San Carlos Water
F171	Active	Vosper Thornycroft	11 May 1970 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	21 July 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	23 November 1972 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	2 June 1977 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	17 June 1977 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£24.1M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	To Pakistan as PNS Shah Jahan. Decommissioned and sunk as a target in January 2021.<ref name="defbrief"/>
F172	Ambuscade	Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun	Template:Nowrap 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	1 September 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	18 January 1973 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	23 August 1975 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	5 September 1975 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£16.5M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	To Pakistan as PNS Tariq
F173	Arrow	YSL	11 November 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	Template:Nowrap 1972 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	5 February 1974 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	16 May 1976 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	29 July 1976 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£20.2M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	To Pakistan as PNS Khaibar. Decommissioned and Sunk as a target during SEASPARK-2022 naval exercise
F174	Alacrity	YSL	11 November 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	5 March 1973 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	Template:Nowrap 1974 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	2 April 1977 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	2 July 1977 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£23.8M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	To Pakistan as PNS Badr. Decommissioned in 2014.<ref name=dnua>Template:Cite news</ref>
F184	Ardent	YSL	11 November 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	26 February 1974 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	9 May 1975 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	10 September 1977 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	14 October 1977 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£26.3M <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	Bombed by Argentine A-4 Skyhawks on 21 May 1982 in San Carlos Water and sank following day in Grantham Sound
F185	Avenger	YSL	11 November 1971 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	30 October 1974 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	20 November 1975 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	15 April 1978 <ref name=Hansard23Oct89pt1/>	15 April 1978 <ref name=MCS5p16/>	£27.7M <ref>Hansard: HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc357-8W 357W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence regarding warship costs, 23 October 1989 says £27.7 million. Moore, John Jane's Fighting Ships, 1982-83, pub Jane's Publishing Co Ltd, 1982, Template:ISBN page 554 says £28.3 million.</ref>	To Pakistan as PNS Tippu Sultan. Decommissioned and sunk as a target in 2020.

Running costsEdit

Date	Template:Nowrap	What is included
Template:Nowrap	£6.5 million	Average annual running cost of Type 21s at average 1981–82 prices and including associated aircraft costs, but excluding the costs of major refits.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref>
1985-86	£7 million	The average cost of running and maintaining a type 21 frigate for one year.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref>
1987-88	£3.8 million	The average annual operating costs, at financial year 1987-88 prices of a type 21 frigate. These costs include personnel, fuel, spares and so on, and administrative support services, but exclude new construction, capital equipment, and refit-repair costs.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref>

The Type 21 ClubEdit

In 2010, like-minded former crew members decided that an association should be formed for former shipmates and officers who ever served on these frigates. It also includes Pakistan Naval crew members of the frigates now part of the Pakistan navy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

NotesEdit

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CitationsEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

Template:Sister project

{{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: {{#if:|The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy|The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy}}
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8

}}

Couhat, Jean Labayle and A.D. Baker. Combat Fleets of the World 1986/87. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1986. Template:ISBN.
Friedman, Norman. British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2008. Template:ISBN.
Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. Template:ISBN.
Marriott, Leo. Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983 Ian Allan, 1983 Template:ISBN.
Moore, John E. Warships of the Royal Navy; New Edition, Jane's Publishing, 1981 Template:ISBN.
Preston, Antony. The World's Worst Warships. London: Conway Maritime Press, 2002. Template:ISBN.
Lippiett, Capt. R.J. Type 21 - Modern Combat Ships 5 Ian Allan, 1990 Template:ISBN.

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