The Type 16 frigates were a class of
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
anti-submarine frigates of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. They were based on the hulls of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
-era
destroyers that had been rendered obsolete by rapid advances in technology. They were similar in concept to the
Type 15 frigate
The Type 15 frigate was a class of British anti-submarine frigates of the Royal Navy. They were conversions based on the hulls of World War II-era destroyers built to the standard War Emergency Programme "utility" design.
History
By 1945 th ...
, but were a far more limited design rendered necessary by budget constraints.
History
At the start of the
Cold War, the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
was in urgent need of fast escort ships to counter the large number of s being built by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, which were faster than the Royal Navy's existing
sloops
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...
and
frigates. Britain had large numbers of
War Emergency Programme destroyers
The War Emergency Programme destroyers were destroyers built for the British Royal Navy during World War I and World War II.
World War I emergency programmes
The 323 destroyers ordered during the First World War belonged to several different cl ...
, which while relatively new, were poorly equipped for modern fleet purposes, with poor anti-aircraft armament and fire control. It was therefore decided to convert the Emergency Programme destroyers to interim escorts to meet the Royal Navy's requirements until new-build ships (which eventually became the
Type 12 and
Type 14 frigates) could be designed and built. The initial design was the
Type 15 frigate
The Type 15 frigate was a class of British anti-submarine frigates of the Royal Navy. They were conversions based on the hulls of World War II-era destroyers built to the standard War Emergency Programme "utility" design.
History
By 1945 th ...
or ''Rapid'' class, which was a major rebuild of the ships, with an extended
forecastle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
and new superstructure giving improved accommodation and complete replacement of the ships' armament and sensors.
[Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, pp. 480, 512.] At one time, it was planned to convert 57 destroyers to the Type 15 standard,
[Friedman 2006, p. 219.] but the cost of such a large programme proved prohibitive, with only 23 ships becoming Type 15 frigates. Instead, a simpler and cheaper conversion, the Type 16 was ordered.
[Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, pp. 512–513.]
The Type 16 conversion removed the existing gun armament, substituting a twin
4 inch gun forward with a close-in anti-aircraft armament of seven
Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors:
*Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s
...
guns, with simpler fire control than used in the Type 15. Anti-submarine armament consisted of two
Squid anti-submarine mortars, while a quadruple set of
21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes provided a limited anti-surface ship armament.
[Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 513.]
Ships
Ex-O class destroyers of the
Pakistan Navy ''Onslow'' / ''Tippu Sultan'' and
''Onslaught'' / ''Tughril'' were returned to the UK between 1957 and 1959 to be converted along the lines of the Type 16 frigate.
See also
*
War Emergency Programme destroyers
The War Emergency Programme destroyers were destroyers built for the British Royal Navy during World War I and World War II.
World War I emergency programmes
The 323 destroyers ordered during the First World War belonged to several different cl ...
: The destroyer building programme that the Type 16 frigates were converted from
*
Type 15 frigate
The Type 15 frigate was a class of British anti-submarine frigates of the Royal Navy. They were conversions based on the hulls of World War II-era destroyers built to the standard War Emergency Programme "utility" design.
History
By 1945 th ...
a more extensive conversion of destroyer hulls than the Type 16
References
Publications
*
* Friedman, Norman.
British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After'. London: Chatham Publishing, 2006. .
* Gardiner, Robert and Stephen Chumbley. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995''. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. .
* Marriott, Leo. ''Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983'' Ian Allan, 1983,
{{Type 16 frigate
Frigate classes
Ship classes of the Royal Navy