P 740 - Royal Navy Type 42 Batch 1 Destroyer

 

This page provides details of the Tri-ang Minic Ships model of the Type 42 Batch 1 Class destroyer currently in service with the Royal Navy.

The Type 42 destroyers were designed principally to provide air defence for a task force, replacing the County Class destroyers which were becoming increasingly expensive to operate, but they are also utilised to engage surface and anti-submarine targets. All the ships were named after large British cities, commemorating many of the Town Class cruisers that fought with such distinction in the Second World War.

The ships are armed with the British Aerospace Sea Dart surface-to-air missile system, for defence against both aircraft and missiles, as well as being equipped with a Vickers 4.5 inch gun and anti-submarine torpedo tubes. In addition, as a result of experience in the Falklands War, the ships are also fitted with 20 mm Phalanx CIWS and chaff decoys for close range defence.

Each ship carries a Lynx helicopter which extends the range of the ship's radar systems and, armed with the Sea Skua missile, is also the ship's principle anti-submarine weapon.

The Type 42 destroyers are fitted with controllable pitch propellers and are powered by two Rolls-Royce Tyne Engines which provide a cruising speed of 18 knots. In addition they are equipped with two Rolls-Royce Olympus engines which allow the ship to "sprint" at up to 29 knots for short periods.

The model is marked on the underside with the famous Tri-ang Minic logo, the model number, "Royal Navy Modern Edition", and the description "Type 42 Batch 1 Destroyer".

Specifications

Ships in Class:

D 87 HMS Newcastle - Commissioned 23rd March 1978

D 88 HMS Glasgow - Commissioned 24th May 1979

D 108 HMS Cardiff - Commissioned 24th September 1979

Builders:

Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, Wallsend-on-Tyne

Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering, Barrow-in-Furness

Laid Down:

Between 1972 and 1974

Launched:

Between 1974 and 1976

Commissioned:

Between 1978 and 1979

Displacement:

4,100 tons Full Load

Length (OA):

412 ft ( 125.0 m )

Beam:

47 ft ( 14.3 m )

Draft:

19 ft (5.8 m )

Armament:

1 x Vickers 4.5" Mk 8 main gun forward

4 x 20 mm Oerlikon / BMARC anti-aircraft guns

2 x 20 mm 6 barrel GE Vulcan Phalanx CIWS

1 x twin Sea Dart SAM launcher forward

2 x twin Stingray torpedo launchers port / starboard

Countermeasures:

4 x Sea Gnat 6 barrelled launchers

1 x Barricade IR decoy launcher

2 x DLF offboard decoys

1 x Towed torpedo decoy

Propulsion:

2 Rolls Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines 50000 hp,

2 Rolls Royce Tyne gas turbines 9900 hp,

Maximum Speed:

29 knots

Complement:

253

Disposal:

In service

(Statistical information from Jane's Fighting Ships 2003 Edition)

 

Photograph of HMS Glasgow courtesy of Chris Hendry

 

Further details of the actual ships can be obtained from the following links -

The Royal Navy Post War Web Site

http://www.btinternet.com/~warship/Today/type42.htm

The Haze Gray & Underway Web Site

http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/europe/uk.htm#3