M44. the Type 45 Destroyer

M44. The Type 45 destroyer

The Type 45 destroyer became the replacement for the cancelled Anglo-French-Italian Project Horizon Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF) in May 1999. Worth £6-7 billion, different estimates said, the Type 45 will replace the Royal Navy's 11 existing 1970s and 1980s vintage Type 42 destroyers with 12 new ships. The other Type 42, HMS Birmingham, was only recently retired.

The UK Defence Procurement Agency's (DPA) Integrated Project Team (IPT) is working on the Type 45 design and awarded a contract for feasibility studies to the former Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), now part of BAe Systems. The aim of the studies is to confirm key cost, time and performance boundaries, and also confirm that the destroyer's 2007 in-service date will be met. Other objectives are to discover whether the programme will be affordable and to confirm the warship's key performance characteristics.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the then MES said they were worried by the 18 May 1999 statement by Vosper Thornycroft (VT) that it was about to share in the design and build of the first two Type 45s. The MoD said that Vosper's statement "came as a bit of a surprise" and explained that, "we have yet to determine which UK shipyard will build the first of class and the follow on ships. It was a case of them really jumping the gun," the MoD said. But the talks announced last May were being held at the MoD's request, Vosper said, adding that it had begun talks with MES on jointly designing and building the two anti-air warfare destroyers, securing 1,000 jobs at its Woolston yard in Southampton for at least five years. MES merely confirmed it was talking to VT "and the whole range of sub-contractors" and was plainly irritated at that time by VT's statements.

VT chief executive Martin Jay foresaw "initial contracts for initial study work in the next month or two," although it is not clear if this referred to the contracts since won by MES. Jay believed that one of the first two ships would be built at Woolston, while the other would be built at what is now the BAe Systems shipyard at Scotstoun in Glasgow, VT said. Jay put the overall cost of the UK destroyer programme at £7 billion. This was £1 billion more than the cost quoted by the MoD for the warship programme to replace Project Horizon. The MoD's £6 billion pricetag includes the cost of development and production of the Eurosam Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS), the Type 45's main surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. At January-February 2000, VT's position as the certain builder of the second Type 45 in the class's first pair is still not assured, although BAe Systems has acknowledged the probability as VT will be involved in the current Preparation for Demonstration (PFD) contract which was awarded to what is now BAe Systems last November.

BAe Systems is the prime contractor of the Type 45. The government had always said it is seeking cost, efficiency and equipment benefits from its 2 May 1999 withdrawal from Project Horizon and the MoD now says it will follow the principles of "smart procurement" to pursue the best result with Type 45. BAe Systems has set up its prime contract office for Type 45 in Bristol, which is looking for sub-system design, development, manufacture and support. These systems have been split between platform and combat systems. Platform systems include platform management, propulsion, fluid systems, HVAC systems, power generation and distribution. The combat systems being looked at comprise communications, data transfer, electronic warfare, navigation and meteorological and oceanographic systems.

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MES, which is now part of BAe Systems, had been the designated UK prime contractor of the cancelled Horizon programme. The then BAe was clearly delighted by the decision to withdraw from Horizon as its BAe Defence Systems subsidiary will also provide the Sampson multi-function radar which will equip the new destroyers. The then BAe said on 4 May 1999 that it had received the go-ahead for a contract worth over £100 million to supply the Sampson multi-function radar for the new destroyers. The supply contract followed later last year.

The S-band Sampson system can handle multiple threats simultaneously while remaining immune to jamming, BAe had said. The advanced radar forms the core of BAe's Sampson Integrated Weapon System. The contract to supply Sampson had previously been initialled by UKAMS, the fully-owned subsidiary of Matra BAe Dynamics, which is a partner in the Eurosam consortium and will provide the UK version of PAAMS under what is apparently a £700 million component within the larger PAAMS contract signed in March 1998.

Sampson is the result of 20 years' work in collaboration with the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) on the Multi-Function Electronically Scanned Adaptive Radar (MESAR) programme. Sampson is an active radar array antenna comprised of thousands of small, solid-state transmitter and receiver units. These are mounted at the face of the antenna, reducing energy losses, which limit the performance of conventional systems. The ability of the computer-based management system to shape and point the radar beam instantaneously in any direction, coupled with its ability to change or adapt the radar characteristics in real time in response to threats and operating conditions, allows the radar to perform several tasks, which traditionally require a number of separate systems. Sampson supports point and area defence against current and future air threats in an environment of heavy jamming and land and sea clutter. Sampson is the first radar in the world to use digital adaptive beam forming, which makes it virtually immune to all forms of electronic jamming, BAe had said.

The UK says it still wants 12 new destroyers to replace its Type 42 destroyers from 2007 - a five year delay on the original Horizon in-service date. The 2007 date is apparently close to the date offered by the CNGF international joint venture company in its final offer of a "more robust" management structure to assuage British fears about that project's management. These 12 destroyers are now to enter service in a very tight programme, lasting between 2007 and 2014. The government said last year that it still planned to collaborate with France and Italy in extracting what could be extracted from the work already done on Horizon since that project's launch in 1993. Phase 1 of the project definition and initial design work was completed last summer and has "informed" the design of the Type 45, the British government has said.

The MoD puts the Type 45 programme's value at £6 billion, including further development and production of the PAAMS SAM which will equip the British destroyers and their French and Italian counterparts under their own new national frigate programmes. Eurosam signed the £1.2 billion full scale engineering development (FSED) and initial production contract for PAAMS on 23 March last year. The DPA's Type 45 IPT will be working closely with industry in accordance with "smart procurement" principles. The IPT will be aiming to effectively manage the Type 45's affordability, timescale and risk.

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The other item of equipment which has been ordered for the Type 45 is the Type 1850M L-band long range surveillance radar from Alenia Marconi Systems and Signaal. Alenia Marconi Systems was awarded a contract in January 2000 for the S1850M radar, which provides essential target information for PAAMS on the Type 45. The initial contract, worth over £40 million covers the development and supply of two radars, one first of class and one prototype, for the Type 45 destroyer. The new radar is a joint development of Signaal's Smart L long range naval surveillance radar enhanced by Alenia Marconi's new COTS based signal processor. With a contract duration of 72 months the project will be managed as an Integrated Project Team with Alenia Marconi's partner Signaal and involve development teams in Chelmsford and at Hengelo in the Netherlands. Alenia Marconi Systems is an equal shares joint venture company between Finmeccanica of Italy and BAe Systems.

The second phase of this project to be awarded later this year and worth some £16 million, will be an initial production order for radars for the French and Italian Navies. The main production contract valued in excess of £100 million is expected to be awarded during 2004. S1850M is expected to become the new standard long range radar for the Royal Navy and the French and Italian Navies. For the Royal Navy this could include the CVF and other future warships. Alenia Marconi sees export potential for both new build and retrofit applications.

The creation of a hull to support this item, Sampson and PAAMS - both the Aster 15 and Aster 30 versions - suggests that the Type 45 will displace around 6,000 tonnes, although already there are indications that the MoD is pushing for as simple a vessel as possible which can carry PAAMS and would economise on other equipment. The Type 45 will also probably include a GKN-Westland Merlin anti-submarine helicopter.

One major item originally expected on Horizon may not be fitted, given that the MoD says the Aster 15 PAAMS SAM will be fitted to the Type 45 as well as the Aster 30 SAM. The missing item is the proposed Inner Layer Missile System (ILMS). All is still confusion though, as a BAe Systems illustration of the Type 45 shows a Phalanx close in weapon system (CIWS). (Presumably these might be refurbished RN examples). ILMS could have been a missile system or a CIWS.

Another item which was chasing a Horizon contract and which could yet find its way onto the Type 45 is the Eurocombat combat management system (CMS), which the UK is known to prefer. Otherwise, a medium calibre gun of either 5in (127mm) or, if the funds are tight, 4.5in (114mm) is likely to be fitted, built by BAe Systems at Barrow-in-Furness where the current Mk 8 114mm gun is built. No doubt the 324mm shipborne torpedo system for the BAe Systems Stingray anti-submarine torpedo will be fitted, as might 30mm Mk 1 guns for policing work.

It is not confirmed for certain that the MoD will abide by its plan for 12 Type 45s or reduce this for budgetary reasons. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review stipulated a 32-ship destroyer and frigate fleet, of which the destroyers comprise 12 vessels. The possibility of a merger between the Type 45 and succeeding Future Surface Combatant programmes (the other 20 escorts under SDR) is not to be ruled out, as the DPA has already acknowledged that the Type 45 might also be a platform for Lockheed Martin Tomahawk Land Attack (TLAM) cruise missiles, just as FSC might be. This however would require the fitting of a universal vertical launch capability such as the Lockheed Martin Mark 41 – something which has been resolutely excluded to date.

Related paper: See also GR54 “Thinking the Unthinkable – Scrap Project Horizon” issued June 1998.

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