Royal Navy's 'Daring' Class Type 45 Anti Air Warfare Destroyer
(Revised July 2008)

The Type 45 class will be the largest and most powerful air defence destroyers ever operated by the Royal Navy and the largest general purpose surface warships (excluding aircraft carriers and amphibious ships) to join the fleet since World War Two cruisers. The projected deep load displacement of the Type 45, at around 7,350 tonnes, will also exceed that of any other general purpose surface combatant, again excluding aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, built for the Royal Navy since the Tiger class cruisers of the 1941 programme.

When the Type 45 enters service later this decade it will provide the fleet with an air defence capability that is several orders of magnitude greater than that provided by the existing force of Type 42 destroyers.

The main armament of the class will be the sophisticated and lethal Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS), which is being developed and procured jointly with France and Italy, with the exception of the Sampson Multi-functional Radar which is for Type 45 only. PAAMS will equip the Type 45 to defend itself and other ships in company from attack by existing and future anti-ship missiles of all types. The Type 45 will also be able to operate close inshore and use PAAMS to give air cover to British Forces engaged in the land battle. The system is designed to defend against supersonic, stealthy, highly manoeuvrable missiles that could use sea-skimming or steep-diving flight profiles approaching in salvoes, simultaneously from several directions.

PAAMS is capable of controlling several missiles in the air at any one time, each one of which could engage individual targets, preventing attackers from swamping the fleet's air defences. MOD oversight of the three-nation PAAMS project is provided by Type 45 Anti Air Warfare Destroyer project team members working at the joint PAAMS Project Office in Paris, from where the programme is administered.

The Type 45 will succeed the Royal Navy's long-serving Type 42 destroyers, which were designed in the 1960s and came into service between the mid 1970s and mid 1980s. The Type 42's main armament is the powerful Seadart area defence missile system, which has served the Royal Navy well on operations from the Falklands conflict to the Gulf War, but which now needs replacement. DPA Type 45 AAW Destroyer project team leader Brigadier Keith Prentice said: "Seadart was designed in the 1960s to defend ships against aircraft, though it has been modified to deal successfully with newer threats."A new type of system is needed and PAAMS is a fresh design with the prime role of defending ships against salvo attacks by the potent anti-ship missiles that we expect to come into service in the coming decades. "The Type 45 is effectively a couple of generations ahead of the Type 42. The Sampson radar, the associated command and control system, long-range radar, vertical launch system and the very fast and agile Aster missiles combine to create a system several orders of magnitude more powerful and effective than Seadart."

The Type 45 will also have a comprehensive suite of other weapons and equipment that will ensure that it can be deployed on a wide range of military tasks. Equipment selected already for the class will includes a main gun for shore bombardment - currently the 4.5" Mark 8 Mod 1 weapon - and either the Merlin HM Mark1 anti-submarine helicopter or the Lynx HMA Mark 8 helicopter. These aircraft will carry Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes. The ship will also be equipped with the Surface Ship Torpedo Defence System, which is being procured by the Defence Procurement Agency Torpedo Countermeasures project team. This equipment will protect the Type 45 against the threat of the most advanced current and future torpedoes. The ship will also be able to embark a force of up to 60 of Royal Marine Commandos or other troops and use its aircraft and boats to support them on operations. The Type 45 is large and spacious enough to accommodate lengthened vertical launchers that could carry cruise missiles, should the requirement for a land attack capability arise.

All six of the class of Type 45 Destroyers have now been ordered by the MoD. The first is on sea trials and has been named HMS Daring, the second HMS Dauntless and third HMS Diamond and these should be in service by 2010. The successor three ships, that will be joining the Fleet at intervals of about six months after HMS Diamond, are to be named HMS Dragon, Defender and Duncan.