Type 42 destroyer

HMS Birmingham
Class overview
Name:	Type 42
Builders:	Vickers, Cammell-Laird, Swan Hunter, Vosper Thorneycroft, CFNE Argentina
Operators:	Royal Navy (1975-2013)  Argentine Navy (1976-present)
Preceded by:	Type 82 (UK) Allen M. Sumner class/Gearing class (Argentina)
Succeeded by:	Type 45 (UK) Almirante Brown class (Argentina)
Subclasses:	Batches 1, 2 and 3
In service:	1975-2013
Completed:	16
Active:	UK: 0 Argentina: 1
Lost:	UK: 2 (Falklands Conflict) Argentina: 1 (accidental sinking at berth)
Retired:	12
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	Batch 1 & 2: 3,500 long tons (3,600 t) standard, 4,100 long tons (4,200 t) or 4,350 tons full load Batch 3: 3,500 long tons (3,600 t) standard, 4,775 long tons (4,852 t) or 5,350 tons full load
Length:	Batch 1 & 2: 119.5 m (392 ft) waterline, 125 m (410 ft) or 125.6 m (412 ft) overall Batch 3: 132.3 m (434 ft) waterline, 141.1 m (463 ft) overall
Beam:	Batch 1 & 2: 14.3 m (47 ft) Batch 3: 14.9 m (49 ft)
Draught:	Batch 1, 2 & 3: 4.2 m (14 ft) keel, 5.8 m (19 ft) screws
Decks:	8
Installed power:	50,000 shp (37 MW)
Propulsion:	2 shafts COGOG; 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines, (50,000 shp (37 MW)) 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines, (5,340 shp (3.98 MW))
Speed:	30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) (2 x Olympus) 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph) (1 Olympus and 1 Tyne per shaft) 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) (1 x Olympus) 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) (2 x Tyne) 13.8 kn (25.6 km/h; 15.9 mph) (1 x Tyne)
Range:	4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) single Tyne RM1C/other shaft trailing at 13.8 kn (25.6 km/h; 15.9 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried:	2
Complement:	Batch 1 & 2: 253 (inc 24 officers) or 274, accommodation for 312 Batch 3: 269 (2013); 301 (inc 26 officers)(1993) Batch 1, 2 & 3: 24 officers and 229 ratings
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar Type 1022/965P air surveillance, Radar Type 996/992Q 3-D surveillance, 2× Radar Type 909 GWS-30 fire-control, Radar Type 1007 navigation, Sonar Type 2050 / 2016 search, Sonar Type 162 bottom profiling,
Electronic warfare & decoys:	UAA2
Armament:	1 × twin launcher for GWS-30 Sea Dart missiles (22 missiles, space was reserved for an additional 15 in Batch 3) 1 × 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS (not on Argentine ships) 2 × Oerlikon / BMARC 20 mm L/70 KBA guns in GAM-B01 single mounts 4 × MM38 Exocet anti-ship missile launchers (only on Argentine ships) 2 × triple anti-submarine torpedo tubes (not on Argentine ships)
Aircraft carried:	1× Westland Lynx HAS / HMA armed with 4 × anti ship missiles 2 × anti submarine torpedoes
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck and enclosed hangar for embarking one helicopter

The Type 42 or Sheffield class, was a class of fourteen light guided missile destroyers that served in the Royal Navy. A further two ships of this class were built for and served with the Argentine Navy.

The first ship of the class was ordered in 1968 and launched in 1971. Two of the class (Sheffield and Coventry) were sunk in action during the Falklands War of 1982. The Royal Navy used this class of destroyer for 38 years between 1975 and 2013.

No ships of this class remain active in the Royal Navy and just one remains in the Argentine Navy. The Royal Navy has replaced them with Type 45 destroyers.

The class was designed in the late 1960s to provide fleet area air-defence. In total fourteen vessels were constructed in three batches. In addition to the Royal Navy ships, two more ships were built to the same specifications as the Batch 1 vessels for the Argentine Navy. Hércules was built in the UK and Santísima Trinidad in the AFNE Rio Santiago shipyard in Buenos Aires.

Sheffield and Coventry were lost in the Falklands War to enemy action. (This was the first conflict when surface warships of the same design have been on opposite sides since World War II, when four Flower-class corvettes built for France in 1939 were taken over by the Kriegsmarine in 1940.) The final ship of the class (Edinburgh) decommissioned on 6 June 2013. One Argentine Navy ship (Hércules) remains in service, the other vessel (Santísima Trinidad) sank whilst alongside in Puerto Belgrano Naval Base in early 2013.

When the Type 82 air-defence destroyers were cancelled along with the proposed CVA-01 carrier by the Labour Government of 1966, the Type 42 was proposed as a lighter and cheaper design with similar capabilities to the Type 82. The class is fitted with the GWS30 Sea Dart surface-to-air missile first deployed on the sole Type 82 destroyer, Bristol. The Type 42s were also given a flight deck and hangar to operate an anti-submarine warfare helicopter, greatly increasing their utility compared to the Type 82, which was fitted with a flight deck but no organic aviation facilities.

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Wikipedia