WORLD OF WARSHIPS HMS BATTLEAXE WEAPONS CLASS DESTROYER

Wallpaper Description:

The Weapon class was a class of destroyers built for the
British Royal Navy towards the end of World War II. They were the smaller counterpart to the Battle class (which followed them) and were the first new destroyer designs for the Royal Navy since the Second World War Emergency Programme. 20 ships were planned, of which only 13 were laid down and 7 were launched, but the cessation of hostilities resulted in only 4 being completed for service. Two of the ships had been previously ordered (as Celt and Centaur) as part of the planned C class, or 15th Emergency flotilla, of 1944, but the orders were changed to the new design.

The class were something of an oddity in the post-war Royal Navy, and did not figure in any of the plans for the fleet of the future. They were laid up by 1956, but there emerged a need for fast fleet Aircraft Direction (A/D) ships to accompany the carrier strike force and act as radar pickets, directing fighter cover. The Battle class were being modified for this role, but as a stop-gap, the Weapons were given a more limited conversion. This involved adding a large mainmast amidships for the Radar Type 965 with an AKE-1 "single bedstead" antenna array, with the torpedo tubes replaced by radar offices. The director was replaced with a lighter MRS-8 pattern, possibly to lower topweight associated with the new radar, and all ships had the squids mounted aft and the guns mounted forward. They lacked specialised height finding and aircraft direction radar sets that the Battles possessed, and so were rapidly superseded and returned to reserve.
Displacement
1,980 tons (standard)
2,825 tons (full)
Length
365 ft (111 m) o/a, 341.5 ft (104.1 m) p/p
Beam
38 ft (12 m)
Draught
14.5 ft (4.4 m)
Propulsion
2 x Foster-Wheeler water-tube boilers, Parsons double-reduction geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) on 2 shafts
Speed
31-knot (57 km/h)
Range
630 tons oil, 5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement
234 (256 in Battleaxe)
Sensors and
processing systems
Radar Type 293M target indication
Radar Type 291 air warning
Radar Type 275 fire control on Director Mk. VI(M)
Radar Type 262 STAAG fire control
Armament
4 QF 4 in (102 mm)/L/45 Mk.XVI guns, twin mounts HA Mk.XIX
6 QF 40 mm Bofors;
2 x (L/60), twin mounts STAAG Mk.II
2 x single mounts Mk.III
10 (2x5) tubes for torpedoes Mk. IX (later removed)
2 x Squid A/S mortars
later 1 x Mark 10 Limbo A/S mortar in Scorpion only