County-class destroyer
The County class was a class of British guided missile destroyers, the first such warships built by the Royal Navy. Designed specifically around the Seaslug anti-aircraft missile system, the primary role of these ships was area air defence around the aircraft carrier task force in the nuclear-war environment.
Eight ships were built and entered service. Two served in the British naval task force in the Falklands War in 1982. After leaving British service, four ships were sold to the Chilean Navy and one to the Pakistan Navy.
Development
A class of ten ships was envisaged in 1958 for about £6–7.5 million each, equivalent to a costed Programme for four large, Seaslug-armed, 15,000-ton cruisers, estimated at £14 million each, based on an upgraded Minotaur-class cruiser, approved for full design in early 1955. The final four County-class ships, with hull numbers 07 to 10, were delayed in 1960 while an anti-submarine escort carrier was considered. Hulls 07 and 08 were approved in 1963 as a temporary stopgap, and the ninth and tenth hulls were cancelled.The class was designed as a hybrid cruiser-destroyer with dimensions similar to the broad-beam 1951 Dido class. Much larger than predecessors such as the 2,800 ton. the new County class would be destroyer-leaders for aircraft carrier task forces and when operating "East of Suez" also play a traditional cruiser flagship role with shore bombardment, and attacking enemy shipping. In 1955 the new First Sea Lord Louis Mountbatten specified the development of 4,800 ton Fast fleet escort design with a Seaslug missile replacing a stern twin 3-inch anti-aircraft mounting,. This replacing a 15,000 ton cruiser design which would have combined Seaslug with the Type 984 3D radar and a conventional Tiger-class gun armament.
During 1956–1958 a full "alternative" gun armament was an option for the new Fast Escort for the fleet based on a modern combined gas turbine and steam turbine propulsion unit and armed with two twin 4.5-inch guns, two twin 40 mm Bofors and a single twin 3-inch gun. A detailed March 1957 study following the Suez Crisis and the 1957 Defence White Paper decided to increase the size of the new missile destroyers to that of light cruisers and include some cruiser features The study opted for a long hull with a fit of 18 Seaslug and four nuclear warhead fitted Seaslug for extended range anti-aircraft, anti-missile and anti-ship. Twin 40 mm Bofors were kept due to doubt over the future and effectiveness of the "Green Light" missile then under development. The Limbo mortar was the only anti-submarine weapon.
A revised design in March 1958 added Seaslug and Seacat missiles and a telescoping aircraft hangar. Mountbatten staged an impressive demonstration shoot for flag officers and politicians: the Seaslug test ship HMS Girdle Ness launched ten Seaslugs, including a salvo of two Seaslugs together. The success included hits in the lethal zone of two piston-engine Fairey Firefly radio-controlled drones at flying at a speed of 315-375 mph. This enabled the Minister of Defence Duncan Sandys to gain the approval of the Cabinet Defence Committee for Seaslug production to be approved in 1958.
While the missile worked against level flying targets, the beam guidance system was dubious at range and in rough water and eight fixed stabilisers were added to the design of the County-class. Advocacy for the guided missiles fit was led by Mountbatten and the Cabinet agreed with using the system, despite staff reports over missile unreliability and inaccuracy,. This was confirmed by the dismal performance in the following Seaslug target launches at Woomera range, South Australia in 1959 Many Royal Australian Navy officers felt Seaslug was unsuitable for the RAN.
Final revisions to the design in 1958 were to adopt a high flush deck from B turret, increasing internal space, the cancellation of the nuclear-tipped Seaslug, and provision for folding fins for the Seaslug; this allowed storage of 20 extra missile bodies which could be rapidly assembled. Against staff advice, a tight fitting, fixed side-hangar for the anti-submarine Westland Wessex helicopter was added on the insistence of the First Sea Lord. While a flawed layout, it proved usable when tested in the Falklands War in 1982.
Lord Mountbatten classified the County-class as guided missile destroyers to gain Treasury and political support with cruisers discredited in the media as colonial relics, obsolete gunships like battleships. The Royal Navy staff and officers regarded the County class as cruisers and to signify they were major surface units they were given names previously carried by cruisers including the preceding County-class heavy cruisers and First World War armoured cruisers. They were however less than real cruisers, unarmoured and fitted to destroyer standards, except for staff accommodation and a dated, short ranged, semi automatic, 4.5 destroyer armament given additional spotting radar. They did provide space and weight for light Bofors and Oerlikons to be fitted if required as happened post Falklands War. The apparently impressive performance of Seaslug against jet Gloster Meteor UC15 drones, giving the Royal Navy a good number of impressive County-class 'destroyers' and a greater number of ship commands and posts for ambitious officers.
While short on the support and logistic spares stocks of a traditional cruiser, they were envisaged by the Director of Naval Construction as being 'probably' used in the cruiser role with space for Flag staff offices, and admiral's barge accommodation in the 1960s: the last decade when the UK oversaw significant colonial territory East of Suez. Its missile capability had been overtaken by aircraft development by 1962–63, when HMS Devonshire and Hampshire entered service, but in the early and mid-1960s the modern lines of these guided-missile destroyers, with their traditional RN cruiser style and their impressive-looking missiles, enabled the overstretched Royal Navy to project sufficient power to close down the threat of a militant, left-leaning Indonesia to Malaysia and Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation. Indonesia was not impressed and spent the early 1960s building up an anti-carrier force of Tupolev_Tu-16 bombers armed with KS-1_Komet cruise missiles, the very combination Seaslug could not catch.
Design
The County class was designed around the GWS1 Seaslug beam riding anti-aircraft missile system. Seaslug was a first-generation surface-to-air missile intended to hit high-flying nuclear-armed bombers and surveillance aircraft like the Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger" and Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear", which could direct strikes against the British fleet from missile destroyers and cruise missile-armed submarines. The Tu 95 and the improved Tupolev Tu-142 were demanding targets for a missile like Seaslug; the long-range Soviet turboprop aircraft flew at an altitude of, at and were barely within the engagement capability of Seaslug. In 1956 during the first integrated trials of Sea Slug on HMS Girdle Ness cancellation of Seaslug was considered. The RAF found Seaslug could not cover low and high level targets and was only marginally capable on subsonic targets at 3–10 miles and height of 1–7 miles, and not effective against modern V Bomber, English Electric Canberra and Soviet Il-28 type aircraft which were likely to be used in a 1956 Suez confrontation. The missile was obsolete in many Admirals and MPs views compared the USN Terrier missile, the RAF Bristol Bloodhound and the British Army's Thunderbird semi-active homing missiles in service by 1958. CNS, Mountbatten and Vice Admiral Reid, saw it as 'deplorable' that Sea Slug was so far behind due to the lack of engineers and higher priority for Korea but it was essential to Royal Navy and UK credibility and independence to continue with Sea Slug. A new British missile or adoption of the Terrier Mk11 or Thunderbird would take too long. The improved Mark 2 version of Seaslug had 10,000 ft greater altitude and speed.The Seaslug system was a large weapon. Each missile was long and weighed two tons; its handling arrangements and electronics systems were also large; so even fitting a single system aboard a ship the size of the Counties was a challenge. The missiles were stowed horizontally in a long unarmoured magazine which was sited above the waterline and took up a great deal of internal space. The risk of fire near the magazine was checked by an automatic sprinkler system. In order to increase the number of missiles that could be carried, on the last four ships, some of the missiles were stored partly disassembled in the forward end of the magazine. Their wings and fins would be reattached before being moved into the aft sections of the handling spaces and eventually loaded onto the large twin launcher for firing.
The limitations of the beam riding guidance method and lack of a homing head, meant the Mk 1 and 2 Seaslug were intended to have nuclear variants - the much larger blast compensating for lack of accuracy. However nuclear warhead for Mk 1 Seaslug was dropped as it needed extra crew, space and security which were not available on the smaller hull; development of the nuclear warhead for Seaslug on the second group of ships was cancelled in June 1962, to reduce the naval budget, and the RNs requirement below 334 tactical nuclear warheads.
The County-class and the Seaslug missile were interim solutions and the new Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile would have speed and accuracy to ensure a hit without requiring a nuclear warhead. Mountbatten doubted the usefulness of tactical nuclear weapons by 1962, due to escalation theories, scientific advice and greater evidence of fallout consequences, leading to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. There were also staff and space difficulties with carrying nuclear warheads on confined destroyers. As early as 1952, Air Chief Marshal John Slessor the most influential defence Advisor to Winston Churchill considered the Navy irrelevant in a nuclear war, he first defined, the role of RN was "uncertain" as a pretext to maintain a large fleet and required only for political reasons. The collapse of the 1956 Suez operation and the huge impact of the British hydrogen bomb tests in 1954-57 led to the 1957 review of Britain's defences, reliance on nuclear deterrence by strategic aircraft, missiles and missile submarines and doubt that a nuclear war would last long enough to require trans-Atlantic convoys. Corresponding doubt whether major conventional war was still possible on the basis of the last 1954-5 HC speeches of Churchill and Eisenhower, justified large cutbacks of British and American large ship, destroyer and carrier programmes and the future role and relevance of the Royal Navy was "unclear" moving the RN to more limited East of Suez task forces with gun and Seaslug- and Seacat-armed destroyers escorting medium British aircraft carriers with only a limited nuclear strike capacity against ships and cities equipped with Blackburn Buccaneer S.1 strike aircraft mainly aimed to deter regional powers such as Indonesia. Early versions of the equivalent US missile system RIM-2 Terrier, like Seaslug, relied on beam riding and needed a nuclear warhead variant to compensate for inaccuracy at low level and range. However, by 1962, the US was concentrating on the medium range radar guided RIM-24 Tartar and long range RIM-8 Talos, which had success against long range North Vietnamese aircraft from 1968. The Royal Air Force's semi-active land-based Bristol Bloodhound was unrelated to Seaslug development, but drew top scientists away from RN work.
The County-class design attempted to give maximum protection from nuclear fallout. The operation rooms, where the ship was fought from, was located deep in the ship five decks below the bridge with a lift connecting it to the latter, which maintained some duplicated command systems. The operations room had the main radar, sonar and electronic warfare screens, and communication data and computer links. The electronics required for the Seaslug were the large Type 901 fire-control radar and the Type 965 air-search radar. These required a great deal of weight to be carried high up on the ship which affected the ship layout. Although superior the Type 984 radar was rejected as it was even heavier and would excluded fitting a twin turret 4.5-inch armament forward which was needed for gunfire support or action against surface vessels. It was hoped that RN carriers with Type 984 would provide primary air targeting for the destroyers through a datalink. According to a RN naval architect, "Sea Slug did not live up to expectations" and was obsolete by 1957. The compromises required by the heavy and dated Seaslug system detracted from the success and popularity of an otherwise advanced ship design. Its ineffectiveness and vulnerable magazine and missile fuel reduced confidence in the class, which had potential as command ships, having good seaworthiness, speed and in the group two ships a spacious operations room with ADAWS.
In 1960, because US-designed missiles were seen at the time to be superior to the Seaslug, the Royal Australian Navy proposed a variation of the County-class armed with the US Tartar missile and two additional modifications: hangar space for three Westland Wessex helicopters and a steam propulsion system, rather than the combined steam and gas system used in the County class. However, the RAN instead decided to proceed with the . Two different reasons have been put forward for the Australian decision: according to an Australian history, British authorities would not allow a steam-propelled variant of the county, whereas, according to a British account, the re-design required to accommodate the Tartar missile would have taken longer than the RAN was prepared to accept.
The US Terrier missile had some support amongst the RN staff but consideration was not given to acquiring it for the second batch of four ships, as the County class were "shop windows" for advanced UK technology, and it was vital for the British missile and aerospace industry to continue the Sea Slug project, to allow the development of the much improved Sea Dart missile. Following problems with the original version, a reworked Action Data Automation Weapon System was successfully trialled on HMS Norfolk in 1970. In the mid-1960s the County-class destroyers were assets; their impressive appearance and data links, feeding off the carriers' Type 984 radar, projected effective capability during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. The Mark 1 Seaslug was operationally reliable and proved useful as a missile target for the new Sea Dart missiles in the late 1970s and early 1980s; the supersonic Mark 2 version proved less effective for this. There are questions as to whether it was ever fully operational and there were problems with missiles breaking up when the boosters separated. Inaccuracy, primitive beam-riding guidance and lack of infrared homing or a proximity fuze in the Mk 1 made it of limited value. Short-range air defence was provided by the GWS-22 Seacat anti-aircraft missile system, which made the Counties the first Royal Navy warships to be armed with two different types of guided missile.