The Type 22 Broadsword class was a class of frigate built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen of the class were built in total, with production divided into three batches. HMS Cornwall was the last Royal Navy Type 22 frigate, retired from service on 30 June 2011.
Seven ships of the earlier batches have been sold to Brazil, Romania and Chile where they are still in active service. Of the decommissioned vessels, Four are awaiting disposal, two have been sunk as targets, and the rest were sold for scrap.
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 they evolved into general purpose frigate 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 (which included two Falklands War veterans) were sold to Brazil in the mid 1990s. Romania has acquired and modernized 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
The Type 22 was intended as a follow-on class to frigates of the successful Type 12 ("Rothesay" and "Whitby") and the Type 12M ("Leander") classes at a time when the Royal Navy drew a clear distinction between anti-submarine escorts (known as frigates) and air defence ships (destroyers). Type 22s thus began as ASW vessels, but were later to evolve into GPFs (general-purpose frigates) as the ASW/AD distinction blurred.
The role of the Type 22 within overall force architecture can be gauged from a naval staff requirement drawn up in 1967. Following the demise of the future carrier programme (CVA-01), the RN undertook a complete reappraisal of the future surface fleet, and concluded that the following five new ship types were required:
- A cruiser-type ship to operate large ASW helicopters (this requirement eventually led to the Invincible class carriers);
- An air defence destroyer smaller and cheaper than the 'County' class (this resulted in the Type 42 programme);
- A missile-armed frigate as an eventual successor to the Leander class (this requirement led to the Type 22);
- A cheap patrol frigate (this requirement led to the Type 21); and
- A dual-role MCMV successor to the 'Ton' class (this resulted in the 'Hunt' class)
Of these, the air defence destroyer appeared to had been given highest priority, the imperative being to get Sea Dart to sea in numbers to replace the air defence capability which would be lost with the premature demise of the carrier fleet.
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 (Type 21) 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.
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 (COmbined Gas turbine Or Gas turbine) 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 Lynx helicopter and triple torpedo tubes (STWS), with 2087 towed array sonar a key part of the sensors fit. Air defence was provided in the form of two 'six-pack' launchers for the Seawolf (GWS 25) point-defence missile system. Surface warfare requirements were met by the provision of four Exocet SSM launchers, the standard RN fit at that time.
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 during upgrades, Broadsword was the first to be designed from the beginning without a main cannon. This changed with the introduction of the Batch III ships.
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 (HMS Broadsword) commissioned in 1979, inflation had driven this figure up to £68m, which was far higher than the cost of the contemporary Type 42s (HMS Glasgow, also commissioned in 1979, cost £40m).
After the first four ("Batch I") 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 (CACS-1), replacing the CAAIS fitted to the Batch I ships. A revised machinery installation was adopted from HMS Brave onwards, with Spey turbines replacing the previous Olympus. The future machinery arrangement would be COGAG (Combined Gas turbine And Gas turbine). 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 (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 last four ships of the class (the Batch III ships Cornwall, Cumberland, Campbeltown and Chatham) were of a greatly improved design. Reflecting lessons learned in the Falklands, the weapons fit was changed, becoming more optimised to a general warfare role. The ships were fitted with the 4.5" (114m) gun, primarily for NGS (Naval Gunfire Support for land forces). Exocet was replaced by the superior Harpoon with eight GWS 60 missile launchers fitted laterally abaft the bridge, and each ship would carry a Goalkeeper CIWS (Close-In Weapon System).
In their final form, the Type 22s were the largest frigates ever built for the Royal Navy – the follow-on Type 23 class would be appreciably smaller ships. Reflecting this, Type 22s were often deployed as flagships for NATO Task Groups.
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Displacement: | Batch 1: 4,400 tonnes, standard Batch 2: 4,800 tonnes, standard Batch 3: 5,300 tonnes, standard |
| Length: | Batch 1: 131.2 m (430 feet) Batch 2: 146.5 m (480 feet) Batch 3: 148.1 m (486 feet) |
| Beam: | 14.8 m (48 feet) |
| Draft: | Batch 1: 6.1 m (20 feet) Batch 2 & 3: 6.4 m (21 feet) |
| Propulsion: | Batch 1 & 2: 2-shaft COGOG
|
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h (full)) 18 knots (33.3 km/h (cruise)) |
| Complement: | Batch 1: 222 Batch 2: 273 Batch 3: 250 |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
|
| Armament: | Royal Navy Batch 3 were armed with;
|
| Aircraft carried: | 1-2× Lynx Mk.8, armed with;
|
| Aviation facilities: | Flight deck and hanger |
