"Sheffield" class destroyer - British AAW destroyer type 42.
About this creation
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
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 excellent 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.
This class was originally conceived to be a stopper for long-range strategic bombers from the former Soviet long range aviation and as area defence for carrier battle groups. The class reached its operational zenith during the Falklands War with seven ships partaking in Operation Corporate and the immediate aftermath. The Type 42 provided a capable, if limited, long range reach against Argentine air force assets, confirming three kills. With their weaknesses exposed - "Sheffield" was hit and disabled by a long-range first generation air-to surface missile AM39 "Exocet" and sank six days later, "Coventry" was sunk by conventional iron bombs and "Glasgow" was disabled by a single bomb which passed straight through her aft engine room without exploding - an extensive rethink was conducted and future iterations in and out of build and refit contained better upgrades, but limited by the Type 42s now ageing overall design.
After the Falklands War two six-barreled 20-mm CIWS "Vulcan-Phalanx" and 2×1 20 mm "Oerlikon" machine were installed.
The batch 3 ships were heavily upgraded. By increasing the size of the ship was able to greatly improve the navigability and to increase the number of anti-aircraft missiles from 22 to 40.
After the end of the Cold War. The joint maneuvers with the missile cruiser "Moskva".