COUNTY CLASS DESTROYER

The 'County class' was a class of guided missile destroyers, the first such vessels built by the Royal Navy. Designed specifically around the GWS.1 Sea Slug anti-aircraft missile system, the primary role of these ships was area air-defence around the aircraft carrier task force in the nuclear-war environment.

Contents

Ships of the class

Batch 1 (''London'' batch)

Batch 2 (''Norfolk'' batch)

Design Features

References

See also

Ships of the class

Eight of the vessels were built, in two batches between 1962 and 1970, the later four vessels carrying Mark 2 SeaSlug and updated electronics requiring rearranged mastheads. The major identifying feature was the prominent "double bedstead" AKE-2 antennas of the Type 965 air-search radar and a taller foremast carrying the Type 992Q low-angle search radar on ''Norfolk'' batch.

Batch 1 (''London'' batch)

★ ''London'' (D16)

★ ''Devonshire'' (D02)

★ ''Hampshire'' (D06)

★ ''Kent'' (D12)

Batch 2 (''Norfolk'' batch)

★ ''Fife'' (D20)

★ ''Glamorgan'' (D19)

★ ''Antrim'' (D18)

★ ''Norfolk'' (D21)

Design Features

The County class were designed around the GWS.1 SeaSlug beam riding anti-aircraft missile system. Everything about the SeaSlug was on a grand scale, from the missile itself to its handling arrangements and electronics systems; fitting even the single system aboard a ship the size of even the ''Counties'' was a challenge in itself. The missile itself was enormous and was stowed horizontally in a large magazine that took up a great deal of internal space. On the last four ships, some of the missiles were stored partly disassembled in the forward end of the magazine to enable the complement of missiles to be increased. These missiles had their wings and fins reattached before being moved into the aft sections of the handling spaces and eventually loaded onto the large twin launcher for firing. The electronics required for the SeaSlug were the large Type 901 fire-control radar and the Type 965 air-search radar. These required a great deal of weight to be carried high up on the ship, further defining the design. SeaSlug could also be used in the surface to surface role, and was a highly effective system in its day.
Short range air-defence was provided by the Sea Cat short range anti-aircraft, which made the Counties the first Royal Navy warships to be armed with two different types of guided missile.
As constructed, the County class ships were armed with a pair of twin 4.5in gun mountings. The second batch of four ships (''Antrim'', ''Fife'', ''Glamorgan'' and ''Norfolk'') were refitted in the mid 1970s - this saw their 'B' position turrets removed and replaced by four single MM38 Exocet launch boxes. This made the County class ships the only Royal Navy ships to date to be fitted with three separate types of guided missile.

References

1. ''Rebuilding the Royal Navy : Warship Design Since 1945'', D. K. Brown and George Moore, Chatham Publishing, 2003

See also