Request for assistance – RN Type 19 frigate

Yes, it’s amazing to reflect on the size of navies in the 50’s and 60’s, not just the RN but the Dutch had a fleet that would be considered very large in todays world, and a few other NATO fleets that are pretty small today were fairly substantial forces at that time. I guess a combination of a much more benign security environment in Europe, military equipment inflation, improvements in equipment effectiveness and a people who just don’t want to pay taxes for large military establishments is responsible, and in all honesty on the whole it’s hard to argue against most of those factors really. A point D.K. Brown makes that I agree with is that in a hi-lo force mix (which lets face it is just as much a part of the modern naval scene as when the T19 was under discussion if not more so) the designer should strive for a very high degree of capability in one field rather than trying to build a multi-purpose affordable design, as it’s better to have quality in limited scope than heavily compromised in every area. The example he gives is the T14, a very good ASW frigate of virtually no use for any other role.

Just a add on to what Turbinia said. In the 1950s the RN was signed up to provide 70 frigates to Nato operations- a rather substantial figure by anybodys standards.:eek:

Thanks to a number of very helpful people, both here and elsewhere this is what I was able to glean.

Uncorn

As far as I’m aware the design never went to the point of a definitive design and all the drawings out there are based on the preliminary concept phase of the type, which of course the type never progressed beyond. D.K. Brown’s book as TinWing says has probably the most reliable account of it in the public domain and it’s not especially detailed. Some bullet points;
-part of a hi-lo force mix with the Type 82 AAW/ASW Destroyer which even at that point was recognised as unaffordable in anything like the quantities of surface combatant needed by the RN
-very high speed with gas turbine engines, some proposals included diesel cruising engines, some were all gas turbine, some proposals were intended to make almost 50kts, the more conservative proposal 40kts
-cost was estimated at just over half that of a Leander, which seems optimistic bordering on crazy for a ship of that engine power and speed with enough equipment to have any sort of use whatsoever
-armament was i believe a single 4.5″ dual purpose gun, Sea Cat SAM, and a Wasp helicopter, ASW ops would rely on data transmitted from better equipped ships in company

Sorry it’s not very detailed, but the design was never firmed up and never got much beyond the discussion stage.

I much appreciate the comments TinWing.

Thank you

Unicorn

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone has any info on the proposed Royal Navy Type 19 frigate.

It was supposed to be a gas turbine-powered high speed frigate, but it was cancelled.

In “Rebuilding the Royal Navy” there is a drawing of a half powered Type 19 variant from a 1966 study called the “387 modified.” It would appear that this 30-32kt design only had two Olympus gas turbines as opposed to the 4 of the Type 19!

In any case, the 387 modified was most definintely not a Leander derivative. In fact, the beam was only 39 feet, narrower than any common hull frigate derivative, despite a length of 360 feet. Displacement was listed as 2,600 tons, but it isn’t clear if this is full load or standard?

Is a “387 modified” a Type 19? Not exactly, but its the closest thing I’ve seen so far.

The shipbucket drawings exagerate the foc’sul step, if only because they are based on the Leander class hull – and the Type 19 was not a Leander class derivative.

I haven’t seen Norman Friedman’s “British Destroyers and Frigates,” though.

Does anyone know for sure if there is a definitive Type 19 drawing in that book?

Thanks Mconrads, I have submitted a request to join to the mods.

The reason for my request was based on your drawings on Shipbucket.

Who knows, it may make an interesting model.

Unicorn

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=15355&hl=type+19

Regards.