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The ''Leander''-class, or Type 12I (Improved) frigates,Purvis, M.K., 'Post War RN Frigate and Guided Missile Destroyer Design 1944-1969', Transactions, Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), 1974 comprising twenty-six vessels, was among the most numerous and long-lived classes of frigate in 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 ...

's modern history. The class was built in three batches between 1959 and 1973. It had an unusually high public profile, due to the popular

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Warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

''. The ''Leander'' silhouette became synonymous with the Royal Navy through the 1960s until the 1980s. The ''Leander'' design or derivatives of it were built for other navies: *

Royal New Zealand Navy The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; mi, Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa, , Sea Warriors of New Zealand) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act ...

as the ''Leander'' class *

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy ( es, Armada de Chile) is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Origins and the War ...

: *

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

: *

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

: * Royal Netherlands Navy:

Design

The policy adopted by the Royal Navy during the 1950s of acquiring separate types of frigates designed for specialised roles (i.e. anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and aircraft direction) had proved unsatisfactory. Although the designs themselves had proved successful, the lack of standardisation between the different classes led to increased costs during construction and also in maintenance once the ships became operational. Furthermore, it was not always possible to have the ships with the required capabilities available for a specific task. The first move towards creating a truly general-purpose frigate came with the Type 81 Tribal class which was initially ordered in 1956. The 24-knot speed of the Tribals was considered the maximum possible for tracking submarines with the new medium-range sonars, entering service. The type 81 gas turbine saw the frigates underway quickly, without taking hours flashing up steam turbines, and the provision of a helicopter for long-range attack were considered essential in the nuclear age. These ships were mainly intended to operate in the tropics but lacked the speed and armament required for the priority fleet carrier escort role East of Suez, where fast radar picket capability was important, as much as anti-submarine capability. So the new frigates would combine the roles of the T12 and T61. The fully air-conditioned Royal New Zealand Navy ''Rothesay'' class variant, , which gave all the crew a bunk and cafeteria messing and a RNZN commissioned design study for a more fully capable Type 12 frigate, which also assessed whether the Type 12 could carry 2 of the larger

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

AS helicopters, was used as the basis of the RN Leander Improved Type 12 design. On 7 March 1960, the Civil Lord of the Admiralty C. Ian Orr-Ewing stated that the " Type 12 ''Whitby''-class anti-submarine frigates are proving particularly successful ... and we have decided to exploit their good qualities in an improved and more versatile ship. This improved Type 12 will be known as the ''Leander'' class. The hull and steam turbine machinery will be substantially the same as for the ''Whitby''s. The main new features planned are a long-range air warning radar, the Seacat anti-aircraft guided missile, improved anti-submarine detection equipment and a light-weight helicopter armed with homing torpedoes. We shall also introduce air conditioning and better living conditions."Hansard HC Deb 07 March 1960 vol 619 cc39-200
Navy Estimates 1960–61, statement by the Civil Lord of the Admiralty (Mr C. Ian Orr-Ewing), 7 March 1960. The 1963 edition of ''

Jane's Fighting Ships ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' by Janes Information Services is an annual reference book of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ships' names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc. Ea ...

'' described it as a "mainly anti-submarine but flexible and all-purpose type". The difference between the ''Leander''s (Type 12I) and the ''Whitby''s (Type 12) was most obviously that the stepped quarterdeck of the Type 12 had been done away with, resulting in a flush deck, with the exception of the raised

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 ...

. The superstructure had been combined into a single block amidships and a new

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

design gave improved visibility. A

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

and

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopte ...

were provided aft for the

Westland Wasp The Westland Wasp is a small 1960s British turbine powered, shipboard anti-submarine helicopter. Produced by Westland Helicopters, it came from the same P.531 programme as the British Army Westland Scout, and is based on the earlier piston-e ...

light anti-submarine helicopter, which was still at the prototype stage when the first ships were ordered. The ship was

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

throughout and there were no portholes in order to improve nuclear, biological and chemical defence. The ships were all given names which had previously been given to Royal Navy cruisers, mostly of characters from

classical mythology Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and poli ...

, the exceptions being ''Cleopatra'' and ''Sirius''.Marriott, p. 82 The Y160 boiler variant used on the Batch 3 ''Leander''s (such as ) also incorporated steam atomisation equipment on the fuel supply so the diesel fuel entering the boilers ''via'' the three main burners was atomised into a fine spray for better flame efficiency. Some ships with Y100 Boilers were also converted to steam atomisation, HMS ''Cleopatra'' being one of them. The superheat temperature of the Y160 was controlled manually by the boiler room

petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be super ...

of the watch between and the steam supplied to the main turbines was at a pressure of . The ''Leander''-class frigates did have Babcock & Wilcox boilers but of a more conventional two-drum design, one water drum and one steam drum, much like a

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

without the second water drum. The water drum was offset to one side and below the furnace and steam drum. The two boilers fitted were 'handed' with the water drum inboard on both. Many ''Leander''s had six-burner furnaces (known as Five and a Half Boilers) and the output was varied by altering the number of burners in use. HMNZS Canterbury F421 (1971)

Construction programme

Royal Navy

Royal New Zealand Navy

Midlife major refits

The entire class were designed for a standard weapons fit when built, with a twin 4.5-inch Mark 6 gun mount, GWS-22 Seacat missile system and Limbo anti-submarine mortar, though the first seven entered service fitted with two single 40 mm Bofors guns on the hangar roof instead of Seacat, with the SAM system fitted later. All but one of the ships had Seacat GWS-22; the exception was ''Naiad'', which had Seacat GWS-20. However, advances in weapons systems led to a number of different conversions being undertaken on various members of the class. This saw the class grouped into four broad batches: *Ikara - installation of the Ikara ASW missile system in place of the 4.5-inch gun mount, plus an additional Seacat missile system. *Exocet/Seacat - installation of

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical director ...

anti-ship missile system in place of 4.5-inch gun mount, plus two additional Seacat missile systems. *Exocet/Seawolf - installation of Exocet anti-ship missile system in place of 4.5-inch gun mount; replacement of Seacat with single GWS-25 Seawolf surface-to-air missile system. *Gun - retained 4.5-inch gun mount and Seacat missile system.

Batch 1, Ikara conversion

Eight of the first ten ''Leander''s were given the so-called "Batch 1" or " Ikara" conversion, which saw the Ikara anti-submarine warfare missile installed in place of the 4.5-inch gun, plus an additional Seacat system, and the removal of the Type 965 radar and its AKE(1) aerial. The internal space previously used by the Type 965 was used for the ADAWS needed for Ikara.

Batch 2, Seacat/Exocet conversion

Two of the ''Leander''s with Y-100 machinery, and five out of the six with Y-136 machinery, were given the so-called "Batch 2" or "Exocet" conversion. This conversion gave them Exocet anti-shipping missiles in place of the 4.5-inch gun mount, 2 additional Seacat systems, and the ability to operate the Lynx helicopter.

Batch 2, navigational training ship conversion

''Juno'', commissioned 18 July 1967, was converted to serve as a navigational training ship. Work at Rosyth began in January 1982 and completed in February 1985.Hansard HC Deb 14 July 1987 vol 119 cc437-40W
Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking for a list by class the destroyers and frigates presently 438W serving in the Royal Navy showing for each vessel the current age and the dates between which they have undergone major refits, 14 July 1987. This conversion involved the removal of the Type 965 radar and all of her armament. The flight deck was extended by plating over the mortar well; the STWS 1 torpedo system and two 20 mm guns were installed. ''Juno'' replaced in the training role, as well as serving as the trials ship for the Type 2050 sonar.

Batch 3, Seawolf/Exocet conversion

The Seawolf conversion gave the broad-beamed ''Leander''s Exocet anti-shipping missiles in place of the 4.5-inch mounting, a Seawolf missile system in place of Seacat, Sonar 2016, and the ability to operate the Lynx helicopter. All the radar systems were removed and replaced by Type 967, 968, 1006 and 910 radars. Only five of the broad-beamed ''Leander''s were converted to carry Seawolf due to costs (£70 million for each refit) and, as a lesser consideration, to retain some ships capable of

naval gunfire support Naval gunfire support (NGFS) (also known as shore bombardment) is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support Fire support is defined by the United States Department of Defense as " Fires that directly support land, maritime, amphibiou ...

. † = Latest estimate as at 14 December 1983.

Batch 2 TA & Batch 1B - towed array conversions

In 1981 the Admiralty said that they intended to devote "substantial resources to improving the effectiveness of the sensors and anti-submarine weapons ... This includes the new passive towed array system that we hope to introduce into service next year." The former destroyer and the frigate were used for testing prototypes in 1978–1981. It was planned to install them on ''Rothesay'' conversions, but this was not possible due to industrial strikes. Scheduling then made it easier to fit them onboard four of the Batch II ''Leander''s. "Compensation for the additional 70 tons of top weight included lowering the Exocet launchers. This interesting quartet was to have been followed by five Batch III ''Leander''s, but the latter fell foul of the Nott cancellations. A fifth ''Leander'', the Ikara-carrying HMS ''Arethusa'', was fitted with a towed array in 1985, the year the towed-array trials ship ''Lowestoft'' was withdrawn from service." Admiral Sir Julian Oswald said to the Defence Committee in 1989, "in order to capitalise on the really very exciting and important development of towed arrays, we had to get them to sea as soon as we could. The only sensible, cost-effective option open to us was to take some relatively older ships - the ''Leanders'' - and convert them quickly to the towed array. We have done that with great success, and the peacetime patrols have achieved some remarkable results, but there has been a price to pay because of the age of those ships." In general, "as a ship gets older it tends to get noisier - the hull and also the propulsion system". At the same Defence Committee meeting, Oswald spoke "to counter the presumption that older ships get noisier. That is not necessarily true and it is not true, in my experience, in the case of the ''Leander''s because understanding of ship-generated noise is improving all the time and our techniques for countering it are improving - our noise monitoring and so on - so, despite the fact that these ships are getting older, they are in many cases managing to improve their performance with regard to ship noise."Defence Committee, sixth report, ''The Royal Navy's Surface Fleet: Current Issues - report, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence and memoranda'', pub HMSO, 21 June 1989, minutes of evidence page 3. Captain Geoffrey Biggs said "the ''Leander''s are remarkably quiet in operation and our experience has been that they have made excellent towed-array platforms despite the rather short notice of actually getting the towed-array programme together to start with. They actually perform very well." Five ships were converted to use Waverley Type 2031(I) towed array (passive search very low frequency). They were as follows:

Royal Navy service

During their lengthy service with the Royal Navy ''Leander''s were employed during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in 1963-1966. The 1973 and 1975-1976

Cod Wars The Cod Wars ( is, Þorskastríðin; also known as , ; german: Kabeljaukriege) were a series of 20th-century confrontations between the United Kingdom (with aid from West Germany) and Iceland about fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of ...

in the latter of which HMS ''Diomede'' suffered severe damage with a 30 feet gash in its hull after being rammed by an

Icelandic Coast Guard The Icelandic Coast Guard (, or simply ) is the Icelandic defence service responsible for search and rescue, maritime safety and security surveillance, and law enforcement in the seas surrounding Iceland. The Coast Guard maintains the Iceland ...

gunboat. The frigates with their thin hulls being much less suited to this duty than the later offshore patrol vessels. Four members of the class saw action during the 1982 Falklands War, three Batch Two conversions, HMS ''Argonaut'', HMS ''Minerva'' and HMS ''Penelope'' L. Marriot. ''Royal Navy Frigates 1945-1983''.Ian Allan. 1983. London, p 90. ''Argonaut'' experienced 15 air attacks in San Carlos Sound and was hit by a number of bombs and cannon fire; it was stranded for six days, with two bombs lodged in the forward Seacat magazine and boiler room. The first Seawolf conversion HMS ''Andromeda'', was one of only three Seawolf fitted frigates available with the Royal Navy's newest missile in the war and served during the war as the critical "goalkeeper"- the last line of defence for the carrier HMS ''Invincible'' during the war. The five unconverted, gun-armed, broad-beam ''Leanders'', arrived in the war zone in the last week of the conflict and immediately after it to serve with the post-war task force led by the brand new carrier HMS ''Illustrious''. An Argentine naval dive team planned to place limpet mines on HMS ''Ariadne'' at

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

during the conflict (

Operation Algeciras Operation Algeciras was a foiled Argentine plan to sabotage a Royal Navy warship in Gibraltar during the Falklands War. The Argentine reasoning was that if the British military felt vulnerable in Europe, they would decide to keep some vessels in ...

). The last ''Leander'' commissioned in 1973, like the two built for Chile, carried special electronic warfare systems, for countering Exocet missiles, and the Argentine services may have anticipated the ''Ariadne'' was scheduled for service in the Total Exclusion Zone, which in fact did not happen until after the end of the war. The ships performed excellently in Royal Navy service, with relatively low noise levels giving the 2031(I) towed sonar a range of more than 100 miles, better than that of the more advanced 2031(Z) sonar when fitted in the

Type 22 frigate The Type 22 frigate also known as the ''Broadsword'' class was a class of frigates built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen were built in total, with production divided into three batches. Initially intended to be anti-submarine warfare fri ...

s. However, all ''Leander''s in Royal Navy service were decommissioned by the early 1990s due to the ships' ageing design and the high number of crew. ''Scylla'' was sunk on 27 March 2004 as an artificial reef off

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, eleven years after her decommissioning in 1993.

Running costs

Overseas service

''Leander''-class frigates were also successfully exported to serve in the

and

; in the latter they were designated as the . Further frigates were modelled on the ''Leander''-class frigates and were built under licence in Australia as the for the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as the and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

as the . Royal Navy ships were sold to the navies of Chile,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

, New Zealand ( becoming and becoming HMNZS ''Southland''), India and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Starting in 1986, the six ''Van Speijk''-class ships were sold to the

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut, , Indonesian National Military-Naval Force, TNI-AL) is the naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol ...

and renamed the , five of which are still in service. Pakistan decommissioned the last of its ''Leander''-class frigates, ''Zulfiqar'', in January 2007, India decommissioned her last ''Leander'' class on 24 May 2012. , the last steam-turbine driven ''Leander''-class frigate in the Royal New Zealand Navy, was decommissioned in Auckland on 31 March 2005 after 33 years operational service. In 2006 it was announced that the ship was to be sunk as a dive attraction in the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for it ...

, and this was carried out on 3 November 2007 at Deep Water Cove. She lies near her sister ship .

Fate

;Royal Navy

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Allanway, Jim (1995) ''Leander Class Frigates'', H M Stationery Office, * * Jackson, Robert (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Warships, From World War Two to the Present Day,'' Grange Books Ltd, * Marriott, Leo (1990), ''Royal Navy Frigates Since 1945'', Second Edition, Ian Allan Ltd (Surrey, UK), * Meyer C J (1984) ''Modern Combat Ships 1: Leander Class'', Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, * Osbourne, Richard and Sowdon, David (1991), ''Leander Class Frigates: History of Their Design and Development, 1958-90'', World Ship Society, * Purvis, M K, ''Post War RN Frigate and Guided Missile Destroyer Design 1944-1969'', Transactions, Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), 1974

External links

Archived comprehensive website on the design and history of the Leander class and related frigate designs

Hazegray.org on the Leander class

An unofficial Leander Class Frigate Site

British Film Institute site on ''Warship''

Royal Navy leaflet on ''Warship'', from the HMS Phoebe Association website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090417083817/http://www.hmsphoebe.co.uk/ HMS Phoebe Association website
HMS Danae website (all commissions)

HMS Danae website (first commission)

HMS Dido Association website

HMS Jupiter Association website

HMS Hermione Association website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leander class frigate Frigate classes Ship classes of the Royal Navy