Type 82

How did Bristol do in the Falklands?

Some Falklands info here http://www.hmsbristol.plus.com/frameindex.htm

How did Bristol do in the Falklands?

Thanks Steve

I really should have looked there 🙂

Ikara thread in Missiles and Munitions Forum http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30787

Anyone has any detailed info on the Ikara ASW missile ? It always appeared to me as a somewhat obscure system, plus it always intrigued me the fact that its concept was not continued in following designs.

Bristol Fashion

HMS Bristol was part of the tradgedy the Royal Navy faced thanks to the Labour government of the time that decided to deliberatly remove the global capability of the Navy (Denis Healy openly boasted that that was his intent in a recent TV interview). The move was remarkably similar to that of the USA between the wars, and just as succesful.

The main problem Bristol faced in the revised Navy was her lack of aircraft (though she could actually land on a helicopter). As she had been designed to escort carriers they were never thought necessary. But this lack effectively damned her to squadron operations only.

Originally designated as a Cruiser she was reclassified as a destroyer to save her from Denis Healy’s determination to scrap all cruisers along with aircraft carriers.

The COSAG propulsion (Combined Steam And Gas) had been succesfully used on the Tribal Class Frigate and the County Class and was seen as an ideal compromise to give both range and speed.

The odd thing about Bristol is that given her backwater status she was refitted after a severe fire in 1973 soon after entering service, which very nearly sent her to the bottom (The amount of water used to fight the fire made the ship top heavy and she became unstable, the design of ships and fire fighting techniques were changed following the incident which is still used as an example of damage control). The refit probably cost more than replacing her with a Type 42.

There is no denying she was a fine ship and well armed, but to the Navy as a whole she was always a painful reminder of what should have been.

Incidently, the deal to buy additional Ikara systems for her sister ships had already been done with Australia and these were retro fitted into Batch 1 Leanders with some modification. The system was re-designated GWS 41 as opposed to GWS 40 in the Bristol.

if you’re interested in ‘What Ifs’ for the RN in the 1970s, this might interest you…
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/Alternative%20RN.htm

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

Good proposals Tony,

I think the RN would have found life alot easier with such a high/low mix and wouldn’t find themselves in the current situation where they are gambling with what ships they can afford to cut.

HMS Bristol was a leftover from the cancelled CVA-01 program and acted as a trials ship for the new weapons it introduced such as Sea Dart, Mk8 4.5 inch gun and Ikara. Heres a unofficial website http://www.hmsbristol.plus.com/frameindex.htm

I’d forgotten bout the Tromp class…..very fine lookin warships…..

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She was actually modernised, her original radars were replaced and she recieved the same radar fit as the newer type 42s.

Her original Type 965 air warning radar was replaced by Type 1022, but her Type 992 target indication radar wasn’t, IIRC. She didn’t get Type 996 3D target indication radar which is the standard fit on all modernised Type 42 destroyers.

Back in the 1960’s when she was being designed, there was an agreement between the RN and the Royal Netherlands Navy to install Dutch 3D radars on CVA-01 aircraft carriers and Type 82 destroyers, in return for the Dutch using the British Sea Dart missile system on their AAW frigates which became Tromp and De Ruyter in the mid-1970’s. With the cancellation of CVA-01 and reduction of numbers of Type 82s from eight to one, the Anglo-Dutch cooperation collapsed.

Below is the bridge and SPS-01 3D radar of old Tromp now displayed in the Dutch naval museum at Den Helder.

if you’re interested in ‘What Ifs’ for the RN in the 1970s, this might interest you…
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/Alternative%20RN.htm

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

Well I understand the RN was looking to replace the Sea Dart in the early 80s, but…………..its 20 years on and its still in use…….I was in 8th grade at a military school during the Falklands, so I followed that war pretty closely……and thats when I would have rebuilt her….right after, say 82 or 83…………just the imagination of an 8th grader……..

why? she was an old boat, that did not fit with the others in the fleet, such a modification would have been ridiculously expensive, especially as the vessel does not seem to have been built with expansion in mind. By the early 80s, the RN was in the early stages of looking for a replacement for its anti air warfare ships and the Bristol probably would have been the first to go. The propulsion was not realy strange, you have to understand that Bristol is a much earlier desighn than the T-42s or the the other ships that you can regard as her peers, thus at the time of her desighn, the propulsion was not that strange.

Allways did like her……thought the propulsion plant was a little strange(carried over from County class?) Would have liked to see her rebuilt in early 80s by losing the Ikara launcher…moving the Sea Dart forward…..adding a hanger and helo deck aft…….GoalKeeper on top of hanger….SeaWolf amidships……2 quad Harpoon……..2 triple ASW TT…………

go to www.navyphotos.co.uk there are some large and amazing photos of this very powerfull ship there. If you google search type 82 or HMS bristol, you will find alot of information.
She was a success but she was very expensive to build, and she used the old style steam turbines, which made her less efficient than the newer type 42s, and being only a single unit there was little in the way of standardisation. She was probably the most powerfull british surface warship, excluding the aircraft carriers of the cold war, and only with the arrival of the T-45, will the RN exceed the prowess of HMS bristol.
She was actually modernised, her original radars were replaced and she recieved the same radar fit as the newer type 42s.
I am not entirely sure how long she served but it was for quite some time, having been built in the sixties, she was present at the falklands, im pretty sure she was active as a destroyer until the early nineties. Currently HMS bristol has all her armament removed and she is tied up and stationery as a tarining ship, if you take a tour of portsmouth harbour by boat you get some amazing views of her, but she looks a sorry state.
What made Bristol so powerfull, was her armament, she was intended to escort the CVA01 carriers (which were cancelled, and therefore so were the planned three sisters to hms bristol) therefore in this role it was believed that the ship did not need an embarked helo. Her armament consisted of 1 twin arm sea dart missile launcher with forty rounds (in comparison to about 22 on the type 42s) and 1 Ikara asw missile launcher with 36 rounds (in comparison to about 4 rounds on other ships with the system)