Date: 2024-09-27 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00017559
Military / Navy
British Royal Navy
Is the Type-45 destroyer the most capable ship the Royal Navy has ever had?
Peter Burgess
Best looking ship the Royal Navy has ever had is about as far as I would go….
Don’t get me wrong, the designers at BAE nailed the sex appeal.
Just look at it!
Now unfortunately when it comes to performing it’s primary role as a warship its more of a toothless tiger.
Now yes, we have all heard about the brilliant Sea Viper air defence system featuring the SAMPSON radar which can allegedly track 1000 items the size of a tennis ball simulteously and supposedly has the ability to track and engage the same number of targets at the same time as 5 Type 42 destroyers could; this is obviously great and in it’s primary role as an anti-air warfare platform it exceeds.
But if push came to shove and it was engaged by an Iranian missile boat, a Chinese destroyer or a Russian SSN it would be lights out. It lacks anti submarine torpedo tubes, towed array sonar and relies purely on Merlin/Wildcat helo’s for anti-Submarine warfare. However just 89 of these are in service, espiecally with the increased demand from the carriers and the rest of the fleet it can not be guranteed their will always be one available for solo deployment leaving them vulnerable. The Type 45 has no ballistic missile defence either, so is vulnerable to ballistic Russian/Indian/Chinese missile attacks.
Whilst all 6 darings do have 4.5 inch mark 8 guns to engage surface targets they lack the accuracy and impact of anti-ship missiles. Whilst the T45 can mount Harpoon anti-ship missiles, their are not enough Harpoon launch kits to fit the entire T45 fleet.
Not to mention, the bizar reason why it has the space for 12 MK41 VLS tubes in order to launch land attack missiles like the Tomahawk and Storm Shadow but the HMG has decided not to fit them to save money, so it can be ploughed back into the DFID budget.
In the picture below you have HMS Diamond with the Harpoon launch kits fitted and below that HMS Dragon without them fitted.
So, while these are the best anti-air warfare ships the Royal Navy has ever had and they are designed to work in a taskgroup with the carriers in fairness and as such have specialised capabilities; I would by no means call them the most capable ships the Royal Navy has ever had.
That title would undoubtedly goes either to…
HMS Vanguard (if you’re counting a Submarine as a ship) which can destroy entire cities.
Or
HMS Queen Elizabeth which can deploy 50 at a push 5th generation stealth fight jets (in the F35B) to near any location on the planet meaning it has the ability to project power over thousands of miles and engage land, air, Surface and Submerged targets with great effectiveness.
******Edit**********
It appears I didn’t make this clear in my original answer so just to clarify:
Type 45 destroyer is designed for anti-air warfare and operate as part of a carrier task group providing the air defence for this group.
The question asked is the Type 45 the most capable warship the RN has ever had.
I don’t think it is, because despite it’s strength in anti-air warfare it is woefully weak in all other areas.
A Type 23 frigate while primarily centred around anti-submarine warfare excels in anti surface warfare with all fitted with harpoon kits and now anti-air with the sea ceptors being retrofitted. As such I would define the T23 more capable than the T45.