Type 22 frigate
The Type 22 frigate also known as the Broadsword class was a class of frigates built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen were built in total, with production divided into three batches.
Initially intended to be anti-submarine warfare frigates as part of NATO contribution, the ships became general purpose warships.
HMS Cornwall was the last Royal Navy Type 22 frigate, retired from service on 30 June 2011.
Seven Type 22s were sold to the Brazilian, Romanian and Chilean navies. Five of these remain in service, one was sunk as a target and one was sold for scrap. Of the remainder, two were sunk as targets and five sold for scrap.
Ship naming
''Broadsword'', ''Boxer''
It was originally envisaged that all Type 22s would have names beginning with 'B', following the 'A' names used for Type 21 frigates. This changed after the Falklands War when two replacement ships were ordered for the destroyers sunk and were named to commemorate them. Another vessel ordered earlier but not yet started, which was to be named "Bloodhound" was renamed "London".''Cornwall''
The alphabetical progression was re-established with the Batch 3 ships before being temporarily abandoned with the Type 23 class, named after Dukedoms. The Royal Navy's latest escort class – the Type 45 or Daring class – have re-introduced the alphabetical progression, using destroyer names from the 1930s and 1950s.The names selected for the four Batch 3 ships were a mixture: two, Cornwall and Cumberland, revived County-class names previously carried both by First World War-era armoured cruisers, and by Second World War-era heavy cruisers. The other Batch 3s, Chatham and Campbeltown, were Town names, the former reviving a 1911 light cruiser name, and the latter commemorating famous for participation in the St Nazaire Raid in 1942; the name for HMS Chatham was selected as a salute to the Medway town, where the Chatham Dockyard, established in 1570, had closed in 1984.
Design
The Type 22 was designed to be a specialist anti-submarine warfare vessel as part of the Royal Navy's contribution to NATO. During Royal Navy service the ships evolved into general purpose frigates with weapons for use against other surface ships, aircraft and submarines. They were built in three batches giving rise to three sub-classes, the first Broadsword of four ships, the second Boxer of six ships and the third and final, Cornwall of four ships.The four Broadswords were sold to Brazil in the mid 1990s. Romania has acquired and modernised two of the Batch 2 ships, while a third was purchased by Chile.
During their Royal Navy service the ships had enhanced command, control and co-ordination facilities that resulted in their often being used as flagships on deployments.
Evolution
Following the cancellation of the aircraft carrier programme CVA-01 in 1966, the Royal Navy undertook a reappraisal of the surface fleet, and concluded that the following five new ship types were required:- A cruiser-type ship to operate large ASW helicopters ;
- An air defence destroyer smaller and cheaper than the ;
- A missile-armed frigate as an eventual successor to the Type 12 Leander class ;
- A cheap patrol frigate ; and
- A dual-role mine countermeasures vessel successor to the
Visually, the Type 12 lineage in the Type 22 design is less than obvious, though there are said to be similarities in the underwater hull form. Due to the workload of the Admiralty design department in the 1960s, a private design was purchased as an interim stop-gap whilst the Type 22 was under development. The design process, already hampered by the priority given to the Type 21 and the urgently needed Type 42, was further protracted by attempts to produce a common Anglo-Dutch design. The first Type 22 order was placed in 1972 with Yarrow Shipbuilders; Yarrow undertook much of the detailed design work whilst overall responsibility remained with the Ship Department at Bath.
Batch 1
The length of the first four Type 22s was dictated by the dimensions of the undercover Frigate Refit Complex at Devonport Dockyard. The ships would be powered by a combination of Olympus and Tyne gas turbines in a COGOG arrangement. Machinery spaces were sited as far aft as possible to minimise shaft lengths. The after configuration was dictated by the requirement for a large hangar and a full-width flight deck.Weapons fit was determined by the primary ASW role combined with a perceived need for a general purpose capability. The principal ASW weapons systems were the ship's Westland Lynx helicopter and triple torpedo tubes, with the large Type 2016 sonar a key part of the sensor fit. Air defence was provided in the form of two 'six-pack' launchers for the Seawolf point-defence missile system. Surface warfare requirements were met by the provision of four Exocet missile launchers, the standard RN fit at that time. A pair of 40mm L/60 Bofors were fitted in the first batch for patrolling and "junk-busting" on summer Indian Ocean deployments, but proved an impediment in the Falklands War where Type 22 captains considered they interfered with concentrating on the Seawolf setup.
The Broadsword design was unique to the Royal Navy in lacking a main gun armament. Although some of the Leander-class frigates had lost their main gun armament during upgrades, was the first to be designed from the beginning without a large-calibre gun turret.
Ordering of Type 22s proceeded slowly, in part because of the comparatively high unit cost of the ships. The unit cost of the last Type 12Ms had been about £10m; Type 21s cost around £20m each; when the first Type 22s were ordered, unit costs were estimated at £30m though, by the time that the first ship commissioned in 1979, inflation had driven this figure up to £68m, which was far higher than the cost of the contemporary Type 42s.
Batch 2
After the first four ships, the design was "stretched", with the Frigate Refit Complex suitably enlarged. Visually, and in addition to the increase in length, the biggest difference was the sharply raked stem, usually indicative of bow sonar though none of the Batch II ships was thus fitted. An important addition to the Batch II group was a new computer assisted command system, replacing the CAAIS fitted to the Batch I ships. This could track up to 500 targets, including those detected by the ships' new Type 2031Z passive towed array sonar and ESM The most significant change in this group of six Type 22 frigates is much more sophisticated electronic warfare systems, particularly the Classic Outboard system for the intercept of Soviet naval and submarine communications. This very sophisticated and specialised versions of the Type 22 were specifically approved by the Prime Minister James Callaghan. The larger hull also improved sea keeping, but never achieved the expected quietness with towed arrays, according to Captain Doug Littlejohns of the Type 22, HMS London in operations in the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap where they were expected to play an important role in preventing and monitoring the passage of Soviet naval units at a critical stage of the Cold War. A revised machinery installation was adopted from onwards, with Rolls-Royce Spey turbines replacing the previous Rolls-Royce Olympus. The future machinery arrangement would be Combined Gas turbine And Gas turbine. Further improvements from HMS Brave onwards included a taller helicopter hangar, giving the ships the ability to carry a single Westland Sea King or EH101 Merlin instead of two Lynx. By 1982, the quoted unit cost of a Type 22 had risen to £127m.This might have been the end of the Type 22 programme had it not been for the Falklands War in 1982, in which the two ships of the class present, Broadsword and Brilliant, acquitted themselves well. Replacements for ships lost in the South Atlantic were all of this class.
Batch 3
The four Batch III ships - Cornwall, Cumberland, Campbeltown and Chatham - were completed to a revised design which reflected lessons learned in the Falklands War. The weapons fit was changed, becoming more optimised for a general warfare role. The only major weapon systems shared with the previous vessels were the pair of six-cell Seawolf launchers and the torpedo tubes. The ships were fitted with a 4.5-inch Mk.8 gun, primarily to provide naval gunfire support for forces on land. Exocet was replaced by the superior Harpoon with eight GWS 60 missile launchers fitted laterally abaft the bridge, and each ship carried a 30mm Goalkeeper CIWS to provide last-ditch defence against anti-ship missiles.In their final form, the Type 22s were the largest frigates built to date for the Royal Navy – the follow-on Type 23 frigates would be appreciably smaller ships. Reflecting this, Type 22s were often deployed as flagships for NATO Task Groups.
Specifications
Construction and running costs
Construction programme
On 11 January 1985, Mr. Dalyell asked the Secretary of State for Defence: "what is the latest cost estimate of a type 22 frigate, with stores, spare parts and ammunition." The Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Lee, replied: "The average cost of a batch III type 22 frigate is currently estimated at about £140 million at 1984–85 prices. The cost of embarked helicopters, the first outfit of stores, spare parts and ammunition are estimated at about £18 million at the same price level."Running costs
| Date | Running cost | What is included | Citation |
| 1981–82 | £11.0 million | Average annual running cost of Type 22s at average 1981–82 prices and including associated aircraft costs but excluding the costs of major refits. | |
| 1985–86 | £12 million | The average cost of running and maintaining a type 22 frigate for one year. | |
| 1987–88 | £4.8 million | The average annual operating costs, at financial year 1987–88 prices of a type 22 frigate. These costs include personnel, fuel, spares and so on, and administrative support services, but exclude new construction, capital equipment, and refit-repair costs. | |
| 2001–02 | £11.9 million | Type 22 Batch 3 frigate, average annual operating costs, based on historic costs over each full financial year. The figures include manpower, maintenance, fuel, stores and other costs, but exclude depreciation and cost of capital. | |
| 2002–03 | £13.1 million | Type 22 Batch 3 frigate, average annual operating costs, based on historic costs over each full financial year. The figures include manpower, maintenance, fuel, stores and other costs, but exclude depreciation and cost of capital. | |
| 2007–08 | £32.45 million | "The annual operating cost for the Type 22 Class of Frigates, which comprises four ships, is £129.8M. This is based on information primarily from Financial Year 07/08 the last year for which this information is available, and includes typical day-to-day costs such as fuel and manpower and general support costs covering maintenance, repair and equipment spares. Costs for equipment spares are also included, although these are based on Financial Year 08/09 information as this is the most recent information available. Costs for weapon system support are not included as they could only be provided at disproportionate cost." | |
| 2009–10 | £32.725 million | "The average running cost per class... Type 22 is £130.9 million... These figures, based on the expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Defence in 2009–10, include maintenance, safety certification, military upgrades, manpower, inventory, satellite communication, fuel costs and depreciation.". | |
| 2010–11 | £16 million | "The projected operating cost for HMS Cumberland in financial year 2010–11, based on actual costs to February 2011 and those estimated for the remainder of the financial year". |
Availability
In February 1998, in response to a written question in parliament by Mike Hancock, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Dr John Reid said: "Type 22 frigates achieved approximately 82 to 86 per cent. average availability for operational service in each of the last five years. This discounts time spent in planned maintenance."Ships – disposal and current state
In May 2000, the Secretary of State for Defence was asked the planned service life of London, Beaver, Boxer, and Brave and the forecast date for withdrawal from Royal Navy service, "prior to the decision in the Strategic Defence Review to dispose of them." The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, John Spellar, replied in a written answer: "The planned service for each ship was 18 years" and The additional information is given in the table." Note that the 18 years was dated from the date of acceptance, not the date first commissioned.| Ship | Pre-SDR date for withdrawal |
| HMS Boxer | 31 January 2002 |
| HMS Beaver | 31 December 2002 |
| HMS Brave | 29 February 2004 |
| HMS London | 28 February 2005 |
In July 2000, the Secretary of State for Defence was asked when he planned to withdraw the remaining Type 22 Batch II frigates from service. The Minister of State for the Armed Forces, John Spellar, replied that HMS Sheffield would be withdrawn in 2012 and superseded by a Type 45 Destroyer, Coventry in 2001 superseded by HMS St. Albans, a Type 23 frigate