Editing Leander-class frigate (section)

===Batch 2 TA & Batch 1B – towed array conversions===
[[File:HMS Argonaut F56 in 1995.jpg|thumb|right|''Argonaut'', a batch 2 Exocet conversion fitted with a towed array, in 1985. Note the platform at the stern added in the towed array conversion in 1982–1983.]]
In 1981 the Admiralty said that they intended to devote "substantial resources to improving the effectiveness of the sensors and anti-submarine weapons&nbsp;... This includes the new passive towed array system that we hope to introduce into service next year."<ref name=Hansard22Jul81c326>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1981/jul/22/royall-navy |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |title=Hansard HC Deb vol 9 cc326-409 Debate on the Royal Navy |date=22 July 1981}}</ref>

{{HMS|Matapan|D43|6}} and {{HMS|Lowestoft|F103|6}} were used for testing prototypes in 1978–1981.<ref name=BDFp302>{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Norman |title=British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After |publisher=Seaforth |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84832-015-4 |page=302}}</ref> It was planned to install them on [[Rothesay-class frigate|''Rothesay'' conversions]], but this was not possible due to industrial strikes.<ref name=BDFp302/>  Scheduling then made it easier to fit them onboard four of the Batch II ''Leander''s.  "Compensation for the additional 70 tons of top weight included lowering the Exocet launchers.  This interesting quartet was to have been followed by five Batch III ''Leander''s, but the latter fell foul of the [[John Nott|Nott]] cancellations.  A fifth ''Leander'', the Ikara-carrying HMS ''Arethusa'', was fitted with a towed array in 1985, the year the towed-array trials ship ''Lowestoft'' was withdrawn from service."<ref name=BDFp302/>

[[Julian Oswald|Admiral Sir Julian Oswald]] said to the Defence Committee in 1989, "in order to capitalise on the really very exciting and important development of towed arrays, we had to get them to sea as soon as we could. The only sensible, cost-effective option open to us was to take some relatively older ships – the ''Leanders'' – and convert them quickly to the towed array. We have done that with great success, and the peacetime patrols have achieved some remarkable results, but there has been a price to pay because of the age of those ships."<ref>Defence Committee, sixth report, ''The Royal Navy's Surface Fleet: Current Issues –  report, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence and memoranda'', pub HMSO, 21 June 1989, minutes of evidence pp.&nbsp;12–13.</ref>

In general, "as a ship gets older it tends to get noisier – the hull and also the propulsion system".<ref>Defence Committee, sixth report, ''The Royal Navy's Surface Fleet: Current Issues –  report, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence and memoranda'', pub HMSO, 21 June 1989, minutes of evidence p. 3, remarks by former naval officer [[Jonathan Sayeed|Jonathan Sayeed MP]].</ref> At the same Defence Committee meeting, Oswald spoke "to counter the presumption that older ships get noisier. That is not necessarily true and it is not true, in my experience, in the case of the ''Leander''s because understanding of ship-generated noise is improving all the time and our techniques for countering it are improving – our noise monitoring and so on – so, despite the fact that these ships are getting older, they are in many cases managing to improve their performance with regard to ship noise."<ref name=HansardDC21Jun89p3>Defence Committee, sixth report, ''The Royal Navy's Surface Fleet: Current Issues –  report, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence and memoranda'', pub HMSO, 21 June 1989, minutes of evidence p. 3.</ref> Captain [[Geoffrey Biggs]] said "the ''Leander''s are remarkably quiet in operation and our experience has been that they have made excellent towed-array platforms despite the rather short notice of actually getting the towed-array programme together to start with.  They actually perform very well."<ref name=HansardDC21Jun89p3/>

Five ships were converted to use Waverley Type 2031(I) towed array (passive search very low frequency).  They were as follows:<ref>Sharpe, Richard ''Jane's Fighting Ships 1988–89'', pub Jane's Publishing Company Ltd, 1988, {{ISBN|978-0-7106-0858-1}}, page 660 lists five ships as having Type 2031Z towed arrays: ''Arethusa'', ''Cleopatra'', ''Sirius'', ''Phoebe'', and ''Argonaut''.  The last four were described by Jane's as "Batch 2TA".<br /> Defence Committee, sixth report, ''The Royal Navy's Surface Fleet: Current Issues –  report, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence and memoranda'', pub HMSO, 21 June 1989, page xviii lists four Exocet ''Leander''s described as Batch 2A: ''Cleopatra'', ''Sirius'', ''Phoebe'', and ''Argonaut''.  "Batch 2A are fitted with towed array sonar."</ref>
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|+Refit when towed array fitted<ref name=Janes1975/><ref name=TArefitVarious>Marriott ''Royal Navy Frigates since 1945'' second edition, page 98 lists which year the ''Leander''s completed the refits in which the towed array was fitted. Friedman ''British Destroyers and Frigates, the Second World War and After'' 2006, p. 302 says that the prototype Type 2031 was installed on ''Cleopatra'', the conversion beginning in 1980, and that ''Arethusa''{{'}}s towed array was fitted in 1985.<br />[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1981/jul/22/royall-navy Hansard (22 July 1981)] made it clear that towed-arrays were not in service in 1981, but that it was intended to introduce them into service in 1982.[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1987/jul/14/destroyers-and-frigates#S6CV0119P0_19870714_CWA_250 Hansard HC Deb 14 July 1987 vol 119 cc437-40W] contains a list of all the refits by the ''Leander''s up to 14 July 1987.</ref>
|-
|-valign=top
!  [[Pennant number|Pennant]]
! Name
!  Commissioned
! Started 
! Completed 
|-valign=top
!align=center bgcolor=#E0E0E0 colspan=8|Batch 2A Exocet ''Leander'' (Batch 2TA)
|-valign=top
|  | F42
|  | [[HMS Phoebe (F42)|''Phoebe'']]
|  | 15 April 1966 
|  | February 1981 
|  | July 1982 
|-valign=top
|  | F28
|  | [[HMS Cleopatra (F28)|''Cleopatra'']]
|  | 4 January 1966 
|  | January 1982 
|  | April 1983 
|-valign=top
|  | F56
|  | [[HMS Argonaut (F56)|''Argonaut'']]
|  | 17 August 1967 
|  | August 1982 
|  | November 1983 
|-valign=top
|  | F40
|  | [[HMS Sirius (F40)|''Sirius'']]
|  | 15 June 1966 
|  | April 1985 
|  | December 1985 
|-valign=top
!align=center bgcolor=#E0E0E0 colspan=8|Batch 1B Ikara ''Leander''
|-valign=top
|  | F38
|  | [[HMS Arethusa (F38)|''Arethusa'']]
|  | 24 November 1965 
|  | May 1985 
|  | February 1986 
|-
|}