HMS Dragon

WEAPONS SYSTEM

TYPE 45 DESTROYER

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• 30mm Gun

  Medium Calibre gun system

  

• 30mm Gun

  Medium Calibre gun system

  

• 4.5Mk8 Gun

  medium calibre weapon system

  

  If you're looking for punch and firepower, then the 4.5in main gun, found on the forecastle of all the Royal Navy's frigates and destroyers, is the most obvious provider. Even in an age of missiles, there's still a need for a weapon to pulverise enemy positions and demoralise the foe - and the 4.5in gun has done so in the Falklands and Iraq. The gun can fire up to two dozen high explosive shells weighing more than 40kg (80lbs) at targets more than a dozen miles away - and nearly 18 miles if special extended-range shells are used. In various forms, the 4.5in has been the Navy's standard medium gun since before World War 2, embodied today by the Mk8 which has been in service since the early 1970s. There are two types of Mk8 used by the Fleet. The older Mod 0 (with its curved turret), which is gradually being replaced, and the angular Mod 1 (nicknamed Kryten after the robot on the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf) which is harder for enemy radar to pick up. The main purpose of the gun is Naval Gunfire Support – artillery bombardment of shore targets. In this role the gun is capable of firing the equivalent of a six-gun shore battery. The Mk8 can also be used effectively against surface targets at sea.

• Lynx Mk8

  Helicopter weapons system

  

  The Lynx truly is a jack of all trades, capable to taking on enemy ships (with Sea Skua missiles), enemy submarines (with Sting Ray torpedoes or depth charges), and smaller surface targets courtesy of machine-gun pods or sniper rifles. It can carry a Royal Marines boarding team, who abseil rapidly down ropes on to ships below, and regularly conducts surveillance and reconnaissance missions using its dazzling array of sensors, cameras and recording equipment. The Lynx is the backbone of the Fleet Air Arm and front-line operations by the frigate and destroyer fleets, operating over the ice of Antarctica and the sands of the Gulf, the expanse of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the confines of the Strait of Gibraltar or English Channel

• Phalanx

  Short range machine gun

  

  Throwing up an impenetrable wall of fire, Phalanx is one of the deadly last lines of defence for Britain's warships. It is fitted to Type 42 and Type 45 destroyers and Bay, Wave and Fort Victoria-class ships in the RFA Capable of engaging targets around one mile away, Phalanx is a radar-controlled Gatling gun which fires 20mm shells, spewing out 3,000 rounds a minute. Like Goalkeeper, it is designed to engage incoming enemy aircraft and missiles if they penetrated a ship or task group's outer ring of defences such as Sea Viper or Sea Dart. During Operation Telic, Phalanx guns were removed from ships and were crewed by sailors defending Basra airport, the hub of British operations in southern Iraq. The guns saw extensive action against incoming rockets and mortars fired by insurgents.

• Phalanx

  Short range machine gun

  

  Throwing up an impenetrable wall of fire, Phalanx is one of the deadly last lines of defence for Britain's warships. It is fitted to Type 42 and Type 45 destroyers and Bay, Wave and Fort Victoria-class ships in the RFA Capable of engaging targets around one mile away, Phalanx is a radar-controlled Gatling gun which fires 20mm shells, spewing out 3,000 rounds a minute. Like Goalkeeper, it is designed to engage incoming enemy aircraft and missiles if they penetrated a ship or task group's outer ring of defences such as Sea Viper or Sea Dart. During Operation Telic, Phalanx guns were removed from ships and were crewed by sailors defending Basra airport, the hub of British operations in southern Iraq. The guns saw extensive action against incoming rockets and mortars fired by insurgents.

• Sea Viper

  Surface to Air missile system

  

  Sea Viper is the punch of the Type 45 destroyers, the very reason the ships exist - and the reason why that main mast is so tall. The missile provides all-round defence – not just for the destroyer but for an entire naval task group - against all aerial threats some 70 miles away. It races towards its target at speeds in excess of Mach Four (over 3,000mph) using a series of tiny jets to manoeuvre, carrying out sharp turns at G forces no human could endure. The system comprises Sampson radar (the spinning egg atop the Type 45’s main mast), a Combat Management System, long-range radar, the Sylver missile-launching system on the destroyer's forecastle and Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles with ranges up to 20 and 75 miles respectively. Until January 28 2009 – the date of the arrival of the first Type 45, HMS Daring, in Portsmouth – Sea Viper was known as PAAMS: Principal Anti-Air Missile System. The missiles were tested at France's missile range, the Centre d’Essais de Lancement des Missiles on Île du Levant, off Toulon, using a special trials barge, Longbow, before the first successful firing from Type 45. That came off the Outer Hebrides in September 2010 at the Benbecula ranges, where HMS Dauntless successfully shot down a drone target.