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WORLD'S GREATEST WARSHIP(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SHE IS the most advanced warship in the world. HMS Daring, launched by the Countess of Wessex on the Clyde yesterday, is the first of six advanced Type 45 Destroyers to replace the Navy's eight Type 42, setting a new standard in guarding fleets from air attack. Bristling with technology, the GBP1billion ship's radar and missiles spread a protective umbrella hundreds of miles wide. Built in sections at British shipyards in Portsmouth, Barrow-in-Furness and the Clyde, the 7,350-tonne vessel is the most spacious and comfortable warship ever built for the Navy. But the GBP6billion Type 45 fleet has been dogged by problems. It is already two years late and GBP420million over budget. The first ship will not be ready for war until 2009, forcing the Navy to spend an extra GBP200million keeping older vessels at sea. POWER: First frontline British warship with electric motors. Gas turbines generate electricity for two 40mw engines, improving fuel efficiency. Ship can sail 8,000 miles - Portsmouth to New York and back - without refuelling. Or cruise for months if resupplied at sea. Top speed 33mph, or 800 miles a day. THE OLD AND THE NEW, HOW THEY COMPARE TYPE 45 DESTROYER Length: 500 feet Displacement: 7,350 tonnes Crew: 190 Speed: 27 knots Hull: Steel Cost: GBP1billion Aircraft: Merlin helicopter TYPE 42 DESTROYER Length: 410 feet Displacement: 3,880tonnes Crew: 301 Speed: 30+ knots Hull: Steel Aircraft: Lynx helicopter Smaller than the Type 45 at 4,820 tonnes, the ageing Type 42 has a far less powerful and sophisticated radar and missile control system. Designed in the 1970s, its older Sea Dart defensive missiles have a shorter range of around 40miles and are slower - only twice the speed of sound. Only two missiles can be unleashed at a time. By contrast the new Type 45 has 48 missiles ready to launch - to cope with 'swarm' attacks by massed enemy aircraft or missiles. Graphic by John Lawson and Mathew Hickley RADAR: World's most advanced radar can track more than a thousand air targets at once - precise .gure is classi.ed - while analysing threats over hundreds of miles. During tests the system simultaneously tracked every incoming and outgoing .ight from Heathrow airport, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Schiphol in Amsterdam. It can track and destroy a missile the size of a cricket ball moving at three times the speed of sound. HELICOPTER: Sophisticated Merlin antisubmarine helicopter carries Sting Ray air-launched torpedoes, depth charges and Sea Skua missiles. Dubbed 'The Flying Frigate'. Top speed 190mph. STEALTH: 500ft-long hull shaped to minimise visibility to radar, so Type 45 looks like a smaller ship on an enemy's screen. All angles and outside slopes are calculated to reflect radar beams away. LIFE ON BOARD: Royal Navy's most spacious warship. Dormitories replaced by small rooms for one to six sailors. All 190 crew have own internet connection. Large recreation areas, bars and TV rooms. All decks airconditioned. First UK warship with its own gym. WARSHIP FOR THE FUTURE: Expected to stay in service 30 years or more, Type 45s designed with extra unused space to allow for future upgrades. Could include shiplaunched long range cruise missiles or completely new weapons technology. WEAPONS: Principle Anti-Air Missile System to protect .eet from every air threat, including swarms of small, supersonic wave-skimming anti-ship missiles. Type 45 unleashes an Aster missile which travels at 2,500mph - four times speed of sound - to hit targets more than 50 miles away, from sea level up to 50,000ft, with 40lb explosive warhead. Just before impact missile's special side-thrusters make split-second adjustments to achieve direct hit. Bow turret 4.5in gun can .re 25 shells a minute up to 20 miles. Short range Phalanx radar-guided machineguns .re 75 rounds per second to knock down missiles or aircraft. |