The argument was very persuasive to a Royal Navy short of funds for building new frigates at a time of inflation and spiralling costs. The government of the day announced that it would order fourType frigates to a joint Vosper Thornycroft andYarrow design to incorporate the best of commercial practice. In a moment of enthusiasm, motivated by the need to create work for the ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineeringbuilding industry, the Cabinet instructed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to double the order to eight ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings.Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Morocco

So far so good, but the ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineeringyards were given their head by the Controller of the Navy, who had little sympathy for D-G ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings and his team. They were told that they had complete free­dorn from interference from Bath, making nonsense of the claim that the Type programme would use the best ideas of both teams.Years later the D-G ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings of the day admitted to the author that this decision resulted in a missed opportunity for both sides to benefit. He also

claimed that the ''ypr design was deficient in stability, and insisted that the beam was increased. The two ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineeringyards pooh-poohed his fears but D-G ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings threatened to go public unless they met his department's objections. There were other less crucial objections, but they were all brushed aside.Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands

When the lead ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineering HMS Anrnzon was accepted by the Navy she attracted much interest, but the builders made the preposterous claim that she had exceeded kts on trials. As she was propelled by the new standard outfit of Olympus gas turbines for main drive and a pair of the srnallerTyne gas turbines for cruising, her maximum speed cannot have exceeded kts oil Full power and kts on the T'ynes alone. Even more startling was the fact that her cost was £. million, an increase of per cent over the cost promised by the builders.Yet, such was the enthusiasm for the `radical' new design that the builders were never called to account for the staggering rise in cost.The first three contracts were awarded to VosperThornycroft, including lead-yard services, and the remaining five contracts went toYarrow ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineeringbuilders.

There were several good features in the new frigates, notably an improved internal layout and the substitution of the new .in Mk gun in place of the old .in Mk twin mount­ing. However, the new gun had already been funded by the Navy, so it hardly counted as an innovation by the drsigners.'I'he officers' accommodation was better than in previous ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings, but the ratings' accommodation was inferior, a point which was lost on the officers who sang the praises of the ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings of the class. As so often happens, the officers who serve in warship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings are by no means objective in their judgements, and none of them questioned the use of alloy, let alone the cost. Nor did anyone in the fleet complain about the fact that they were designed for short hull-livcs: years rather than the - years expected of more robust ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings like the Leanders. Far from stimulating exports, the Type did not prove sufficiently attractive to Argentina and Australia, largely because they were expensive, an indictment of tile whole policy of delegating design-responsibility to industry.Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rιunion, Romania

The Type ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings remained popular with the seagoing flret, but at Bath there were misgiv­ings about their light construction, and when the Falklands War broke out in April private fears were expressed that the severe weather conditions in the South Atlantic Would inflict seri­ous structural damage.

These fears had already been expressed during the so-called `Cod War' off Iceland, but they were not made public. Another problem came to light when niodernisation was considered ill the early s.Therr was a need for ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings to operate against Soviet submarines transiting the Greetiland-Iceland-UK (G [UK) Gap, using the new Type long-range sonar, and Scawolf missiles to meet the threat front anti-ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineering missiles fired from 'Charlie'type suhmarines.Although five Leanders were rebuilt to meet the new requirement, the''ypr s were found to lack stabil­ity for a similar conversion; they could have either the long-range sonar or Scawolf, but not both. As a result they never received any major upgrades while serving with the Royal Navy, and were earmarked for early disposal.Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome, Saudi

Tile outbreak of the Falklands War early in April resulted in seven Type s going south: Active, Alacrity, Arrrbuscade, Antelope, Ardent, Arrow and Aver~Vr.They were about to face the ultimate test of a warship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineering design, a real war in an extremely tough environment.

With no airborne early warning (AEW) to safeguard the Operation 'Corporate' task force in the confined waters off the landing beach, the Royal Navy had to do what it could to defend the beachhead from daily air raids by aircraft of the Fuerza Acren and the Armada Republica Arqerrtina. Some of the Type s, with their obsolescent Seacat short-range air defence missile systems, were stationed on the 'gun line' in an effort to break up the attacks and to provide gunfire support for the troops ashore.When the destroyer HMS ShcjTe(d was disabled by a hit from an air-launched Exocet missile on May the Arrow went alongside to help with firefighting, directing hoses on the destroyer's side.The Acrive, Arrow and Avenger were with the second wave of reinforcements sent south in mid-May. The Alacrity made a daring night reconnaissance run through Falkland Sound, driv­ing the enemy transport Lda dos Fstadns ashore and destroying her cargo of aviation fuel and army vchiclcs.The Ardent provided gunfire support during the first landings of British troops at San Carlos on East Falkland, the principal island of the group, but was hit by seven bombs dropped by Skyhawks on May, and had to be abandoned; she sank the following day

<![endif]>and a huge explosion killed the Royal Engineer sergeant leading the disposal team, injured his assistant seriously and caused lesser injuries to two naval engineers helping.The ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineering was engulfed in flames, and firefighting was virtually useless because the blast had severed the fire main. The crew was taken off without further loss, leaving Antelope burning in the dark, until about midnight, when she was destroyed by a massive explosion in the Scacat magazine.

The Ambuscade and Avenger both survived Exocet attacks, proving that their passive coun­termeasures were effective when the correct procedures were followed. In fact the attack on Avenger was made by the last air-launched Exocet the Argentines possessed, but Avenger was later attacked Unsuccessfully by a land-based version.Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia, Sandwich Islands, Spain, Sri

With the end of the war the surviving units returned to Britain.As predicted, they were found to have serious cracks in the upper deck and superstructure, and required stiffening. Some work was done to reduce vibration and to reduce machinery noise, but the days of the six survivors were numbered. In - they were sold to Pakistan, and even that transaction proved contro­versial.The Defence Export Sales Organisation (DESO) was attacked for getting rid of the ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings without inviting British companies to bid for the lucrative job of rnodernising and upgrading them. As a result of DESO's haste to get the ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings off their books, they underwent a major niodernisation with equipment and weaponry from a variety of European suppliers.

The Type frigate was ultimately a failure in that it did not meet the Royal Navy's require­ments for robust ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings capable of operating all year round in the North Atlantic.The design was in fact optimised for export, to meet the less demanding needs of customers in the emerging world.This is clear from the propaganda campaign, which focused on the need to boost export sales. Even the difference between better officers' accommodation and lower standards for the lower deck gave the game away. In navies of emerging countries it is generally officers who recommend the purchase of ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings, not ordinary sailors.Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands, Yemen, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,

The design cannot be blamed for the loss of HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope; they succumbed to punishment which would have sunk any minor warship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings of similar displacement. Although other ship assessment ship assessmentping maritime marine engineerings suffered from the stresses of bad weather, the Type s suffered most.There was also strong criticism of their aluminium superstructures, although this was not a major factor in the loss of the two units. But the designers had made such play with the benefits of alloy superstructures that it is hardly surprising that they were held accountable. It turned out that Anrnzon had been badly affected by a fire off Singapore, when alloy ladders melted and