- Yes
- No
Hello! And welcome to my suggestion for one of the most (in my opinion) underrated ships of the Royal Navy, in this suggestion I will cover the Initial construction fit of the Type 81 Frigate, this version lacking Surface to Air Missiles. I feel this could come to game to diversify the current top tier Coastal tree for the UK, as well as possibly opening up a door to test Helicopter armed ships in Naval.
History
Spoiler
The Type 81 Class of Frigates (also known as the Tribal Class) were a class of General Purpose frigates designed and built in the 1950s as a Multirole Replacement to the Older Type 14 (Blackwood) Class ASW Frigates. First entering service in 1961, these ships were designed primarily with Colonial Gunboat roles overseas in mind, particularly in the Middle east in which the British were involved in many small local Conflicts throughout the Persian Gulf and the Aden protectorates. Due to this they also featured some very modern changes for the times, including the use of Bunks instead of Hammock for ratings and also the use of gas turbine engines to allow for the almost immediate deployment from harbour in the event of Nuclear war.
However, the Type 81 was also the first class in the Royal Navy to be designed around the use of a Helicopter and the first small vessel to carry a large search radar to detect air targets (something that would become the norm on many complementary and succeeding classes). The armament at first glance was rather underwhelming, with only two 4.5 inch guns taken from old WW2 destroyers as well as two 20 mm Cannons and two 40mm Bofors, however, the main focus of the Type 81 was its revolutionary flight deck, storing a single Westland Wasp in a small and space efficient hanger directly below the flight deck, from which the Helicopter could be raised and prepared for take-off in as little as five minutes.
Now Whilst designed around the idea of both Helicopters and SAM systems, the first six ships (Ashanti, Nubian, Ghurka, Eskimo, Tartar and Mohawk) were built with the Seacat Systems omitted due to costs, however, to retain some sense of Anti aircraft ability, a single 40mm Bofors Mk.7 gun was fitted where the Seacat launchers were designed to go, this was a cheaper alternative, and allowed the Type 81s to be more suited to their intended purpose of “Colonial Gunboats” in which role the likeliness of encountering any real threat from the air was unlikely, and the Bofors offered a dual purpose role against both air and sea targets.
The six Type 81s existed in this build for around a decade, in this seeing very little action, with most ships spending their time patrolling the waters of the persian gulf, with their only real action coming after being refitted with surplus Seacat systems left over from other ships in the 1970s during the Icelandic Cod wars. Following these the Ships were swiftly Mothballed due to manpower issues, remaining in storage until the 1980s, in which 3 ships were briefly reactivated to assist with the Falklands war before being sold of to Indonesia, who used them for another 15 years until the turn of the Millennium.
Images
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Nubian in port in 1970, shortly before her refit to add the Seacat
an artwork showing HMS Tartar as built
A Type 81 braving some rough seas
A westland Wasp on the flight deck of HMS Nubian
HMS Gurkha underway in the mid 1960s
Specs/Armament
Spoiler
General Characteristics
- Length: 109.73 meters (360 ft)
- Beam: 12.88 meters (42 ft 3 in)
- Draft: 4.04 meters (13 ft 3 in)
- Displacement: 2700 tons (full load)
- Speed: 27 knots (50 km/h)
- Range: 4500 NM (8300 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
- Complement: 253
- Propulsion: 1 x steam turbine (12500 shp) and 1 x Metrovick G-6 gas turbine (7500 shp / 5600 KW)
Sensors
- Type 965 air-search radar
- Type 993 low-angle search radar
- Type 978 navigation radar
- Type 903 gunnery fire-control radar
- Type 262 GWS-21 fire-control radar
Armament
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Main Armament
- 2 x 4.5 inch Mark 5 Mod.1Guns (Fore and Aft)
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Anti-Aircraft Armament
- 2 x Oerlikon 20mm cannons (Port and Starboard, Infront of the Bridge)
- 2 x Bofors 40mm Mk.VII Cannons (Port and Starboard, Behind Bridge)
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Anti-Submarine Armament
- 1 x Mark 10 - LIMBO ASW mortar
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Air Wing
- 1 x Westland Wasp Helicopter
Place in game
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I feel like this would be a good contented to diversify the higher BRs of the British Coastal Tree, with the early version offering mostly a sidegrade to other 3.7/4.0 ships at that rank, However the main upgrade could be the inclusion of the Wasp Helicopter, in which Could be implemented as a test for Helicopters in naval, offering a Potent yet counterable helicopter that could be balanced accordingly.
Personally I feel this could come if Gaijin does not yet want to add a missile armed ship to the British coastal tree, or wants to use a non missile armed ship to test Helicopters in case of it being too powerful, either way this would be a welcome addition to the British tree and would give the deserved spotlights to one of the major ship classes of the Royal Navy.
Sources
Spoiler
Tribal-class frigate - Wikipedia
Tribal class Type 81 Frigate - Royal Navy
Type 81 Frigate (Tribal Class) (1961-1984) (RN) - UK Defence Forum
TRIBAL class frigate
Type 81 (Tribal Class) Frigate (UK)
HMS Nubian (F131) Type 81 Tribal Class Frigate HMS Androme… | Flickr
An interesting video on the Wasp featuring Heli ops aboard HMS Nubian:
https://youtu.be/BsEJWwj0mXE?si=NOnhVDTiqrIcj4u6&
A video during the Cod Wars, taken from HMS Tartar