- In the 1957 Defence White Paper, the rebuilding of the Tiger Class cruisers Lion, Tiger and Blake with new automatic guns is cancelled. Instead the money will be used to increase the number of guided missile armed destroyers on order to 12, and upgrade the missile system from Seaslug to the semi-active homing Red Heathen missile being developed for the Army.
- In 1964 with insufficient budget for anti-submarine Escort Cruisers, it is decided to convert Albion, Bulwark and Centaur as dual role ASW/Commando carriers. Funding is also provided to Westland to work on a more powerful twin-engined version of the Wessex. Last County class guided missile destroyers cancelled.
- The County class guided missile destroyers start to be upgraded with the Thunderbird 2 missile in 1966, receiving upgraded weapons and a new guidance radar. This significantly improves performance against low-level targets and those protected by ECM systems.
- The first Type 42 guided missile destroyer (Sheffield) is laid down in Barrow in 1970. The primary armament for the ship is to be a vertically-launched version of the Thunderbird missile, which has the boosters re-located from the sides to the base of the missile to enable 22 missiles to fit on board. It shares a homing system with the Thunderbird 2, but also replaces the sustainer motor with a ramjet integrated into the missile body like the Talos system, allowing a range of up to 45 miles. The fuel weight saved also allows for the installation of an autopilot system which in addition to making vertical launch feasible permits simultaneous engagements at long range using the same illuminator radar.
- Hermes is converted to the same standard in 1971-3. When the conversion is complete, Centaur will be placed in reserve and eventually scrapped.
- 1973 entry into service of the Thunderbird 3 missile.
- Instead of ordering a second batch of Type 42 destroyers in 1976, all 8 Country class destroyers will be given a major upgrade. This involves the modification of magazine arrangements to enable the carriage of Thunderbird 3 missiles, an upgrade to the Type 1022 radar & ADAWS-2 computer system and finally a modified and much enlarged hangar.
- Albion and Bulwark are placed in reserve in 1980 to free up funds for the Invincible class while Hermes is given a minor update to allow for the operation of Sea Harriers.
- Having been refitted more frequently than Bulwark was in OTL, both Albion and Bulwark are still in an acceptable material state and are re-activated in time to sail south with 5 Infantry Brigade.
- A total of 17 Argentine aircraft and one British Army Helicopter are shot down by Thunderbird missiles during the war, primarily by County class destroyers thanks to the greatly improved performance of the Type 1022 radar against low-flying targets.
- British casualties in the war are significantly lower than OTL - fewer ships are lost thanks to the improved SAM systems and the Bluff Cove disaster doesn't happen because many more transport helicopters are available when 5 Brigade arrives.
Culling the Menagerie (one shot)
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Expanding a little bit on this since the missile side of things won't leave my mind alone:
Red Heathen is the rainbow code for the army's Thunderbird missile. It's slightly larger than Sea Slug (about 30cm longer) but semi-active radar homing rather than beam riding. It's also in service 2 years before Sea Slug (due to the commissioning dates for the County class), giving sufficient time for trials on Girdle Ness. Sea Slug had several near-misses with cancellation in favour of Thunderbird in OTL, so it feels plausible to me. Critically it ties the RN into a much bigger missile user base since Bloodhound and Thunderbird share many common systems.
Thunderbird 2 is the OTL Stage 1½ upgrade to Thunderbird - the big change being the continuous wave illumination radar and associated seeker also used by Bloodhound II. The big impact for the RN is that the seeker is now effective down to 150ft and (not really one of their requirements) works well against ground clutter.
Thunderbird 3 uses a further-enlarged version of the Bristol Thor ramjet which his stretched longitudinally and increased in diameter so that the existing Thunderbird 2 seeker system (53cm in diameter) fits inside the centre-body of the ramjet. It's already been stretched once for Bloodhound II (to a 45cm overall diameter) so shouldn't be too hard. Overall length is reduced thanks to the much reduced fuel burn of a ramjet, allowing the booster to be fitted behind the missile instead of around the outside and about the same overall length kept. Guide vanes in the jet exhaust will also be used for control, allowing the control fins to shrink a lot without loss of high altitude performance. Overall the resulting missile looks somewhere between a fat Sea Dart and a shortened Talos. It also gives the government a way to save money on Type 42 since the County class can already use it - buy a few more missiles (of stocks already share with the RAF and potentially Army), upgrade the radars and computer systems and you can cancel a bunch of ships.
Net result is to create a missile which can initially combine Thunderbird and Sea Slug into a single system, and then by the Mark 3 also provide a cheap upgrade path for Bloodhound and eliminate the need to develop Sea Dart. Vertical launch is primarily about easing missile handling requirements on board ship now that the electronics are reliable, but adds in a capacity against saturation attacks as a by-product.
Red Heathen is the rainbow code for the army's Thunderbird missile. It's slightly larger than Sea Slug (about 30cm longer) but semi-active radar homing rather than beam riding. It's also in service 2 years before Sea Slug (due to the commissioning dates for the County class), giving sufficient time for trials on Girdle Ness. Sea Slug had several near-misses with cancellation in favour of Thunderbird in OTL, so it feels plausible to me. Critically it ties the RN into a much bigger missile user base since Bloodhound and Thunderbird share many common systems.
Thunderbird 2 is the OTL Stage 1½ upgrade to Thunderbird - the big change being the continuous wave illumination radar and associated seeker also used by Bloodhound II. The big impact for the RN is that the seeker is now effective down to 150ft and (not really one of their requirements) works well against ground clutter.
Thunderbird 3 uses a further-enlarged version of the Bristol Thor ramjet which his stretched longitudinally and increased in diameter so that the existing Thunderbird 2 seeker system (53cm in diameter) fits inside the centre-body of the ramjet. It's already been stretched once for Bloodhound II (to a 45cm overall diameter) so shouldn't be too hard. Overall length is reduced thanks to the much reduced fuel burn of a ramjet, allowing the booster to be fitted behind the missile instead of around the outside and about the same overall length kept. Guide vanes in the jet exhaust will also be used for control, allowing the control fins to shrink a lot without loss of high altitude performance. Overall the resulting missile looks somewhere between a fat Sea Dart and a shortened Talos. It also gives the government a way to save money on Type 42 since the County class can already use it - buy a few more missiles (of stocks already share with the RAF and potentially Army), upgrade the radars and computer systems and you can cancel a bunch of ships.
Net result is to create a missile which can initially combine Thunderbird and Sea Slug into a single system, and then by the Mark 3 also provide a cheap upgrade path for Bloodhound and eliminate the need to develop Sea Dart. Vertical launch is primarily about easing missile handling requirements on board ship now that the electronics are reliable, but adds in a capacity against saturation attacks as a by-product.
The Sea slug was always a very clunky weapon system, the lattice loader on the Counties whilst impressive to look at, also was a maintenance nightmare and the beam rider nature of the weapon meant that it was tailered to hit bombers and nothing else. If it had a single or twin arm launcher like the USN had for the Talos and other early SAMs it would have been better.
I like the idea of using the Bloodhound/Thunderbird from the army as a joint weapon system, cuts down on development costs and eases maintenance requirements too, and allows a longer service life as the weapons are updated together.
Getting rid of the Tiger and Blake is a huge plus, their refits were absurdly expensive and keeping the three CVL's around, although expensive is a far more useful prospect as they're truly multi-role ships , and would be good to have the Wessex with a bit more grunt to it.
Shame there's no replacement for the Sea Cat mentioned, those things were hopelessly obsolete by the Falklands War, and although Sea Wolf was their replacement, perhaps a push, going off the joint weapons system development of the Thunderbird could also see the Rapier introduced as a SAM system for the RN too for its smaller combattants. A Type 21 would be a damn sight better protected with a Sea Rapier than a Sea Cat. Sea Wolf could still be developed as a terminal/short range weapon system (and maybe offered to the Army as an anti-helicopter measure) too.
I like the idea of using the Bloodhound/Thunderbird from the army as a joint weapon system, cuts down on development costs and eases maintenance requirements too, and allows a longer service life as the weapons are updated together.
Getting rid of the Tiger and Blake is a huge plus, their refits were absurdly expensive and keeping the three CVL's around, although expensive is a far more useful prospect as they're truly multi-role ships , and would be good to have the Wessex with a bit more grunt to it.
Shame there's no replacement for the Sea Cat mentioned, those things were hopelessly obsolete by the Falklands War, and although Sea Wolf was their replacement, perhaps a push, going off the joint weapons system development of the Thunderbird could also see the Rapier introduced as a SAM system for the RN too for its smaller combattants. A Type 21 would be a damn sight better protected with a Sea Rapier than a Sea Cat. Sea Wolf could still be developed as a terminal/short range weapon system (and maybe offered to the Army as an anti-helicopter measure) too.
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That's probably optimistic - the USN Talos cruisers were quite a bit bigger, and a lattice is pretty much the lightest way of handling the loads involved here.
The three services would absolutely hate it, but it's the sort of thing I could see Sandys going for. The fact that they already had a lot of commonality between Bloodhound and Thunderbird (control and homing systems were essentially identical) helps a lot here - the Navy are the odd man out here, and Mountbatten is wily enough to sacrifice Sea Slug if needed to protect the rest of the navy from Sandys.
Lion, Tiger & Blake is really "jam tomorrow" for the RN - they're cancelled without any replacement, on the promise of more Batch 2 County class and a slightly better missile. That fits with the Navy role post-Sandystorm: colonial policing East of Suez at lower cost than the Army could, and getting convoys across the Atlantic in a hot war. You need carriers and marines for the former, escorts for the latter: the three sort of fit in the heavy escort role against Sverdlov class cruisers, but that's about it.
The CVLs follow logically along from this: the RN need more helicopter decks, and in OTL the Tiger class were an embarrassment they had to do something with (being too new to scrap) - which turned out to be a conversion. The obvious alternative is the CVLs if they need something else.
Wessex with more power is more or less as OTL - advanced very slightly because the RN has a little more cash.
Rapier is interesting, and heavily intertwined with Sea Cat. First contract for what became Rapier was issued in 1960, between when Sea Cat was first shown at Farnborough and first going to sea. Both weapons are supposed to replace light anti-aircraft guns: given that the RN just had to adopt an Army missile, I would expect the Army to get Tigercat a bit early, followed by the RAF Regiment.
The follow-in starts to look more like Rapier: both Rapier and Sea Wolf have similar requirements which are rapidly going to converge onto "replace Sea Cat/Tigercat". The Rapier development looks awfully like an improved Sea Cat - SACLOS rather than MCLOS guidance and a faster missile, but otherwise it's still a lightweight optically guided system. That comes into service in the early 1970s as a drop-in replacement for Sea Cat, with essentially the OTL Blindfire radar system being available immediately since all-weather performance will be a Navy requirement. Range is pretty similar (largely due to Rapier having a smaller bang), but since it's a drop in replacement for Sea Cat rather than needing a major upgrade we would expect to see more of them. That would be really helpful in places like San Carlos.
The Sea Rapier (or whatever it gets called) could also be useful on the export market, its small, light, and has 8 missiles and is basically an integrated system from the get go, useful for FPVs and missile boats that are popular in Baltic Countries or the Middle/Far East and South America. And assuming small ships like the Type 21's get built, they would be better protected by Sea Rapier than Sea Cat which will have trouble intercepting any modern jet at low altitude because of its lack of speed and its reliance on the effectiveness of the missile's 'gunner' who's following progress with the flares on the back. And yeah assume that a Blindfire radar analogue would be pretty much a requirement from the get go thanks to the Navy insisting it. This would also improve the capabilities of the SAM's used by the Army.
It could be thanks to the ongoing use and presumed development of the Thunderbird series of missiles that the army and RAF regiment retain them in use for longer to protect bases and airfields. The missiles too big for anything else, it is not a mobile system but again, here you get Rapier, the tracked rapier was a thing, and you also have Sea Wolf.
Sea Wolf is a smaller missile than Rapier, its lighter too, and as we know from OTL, once the radar and electronics bugs were worked out (to stop the whole damn system from just shutting down 'because') it was a very effective system. A potential SHORAAD weapon system for the army to engage the new Helicopter threat presented by Hind's and other attack helo's of the era.
Assuming making sure that Sandy's is hit by a car that then reverses over him several times is of course off the shelf....
And yeah, it makes sense, you save money, keep the treasury happy and you keep the jobs going at the firms making the already existant SAM's.
It could be thanks to the ongoing use and presumed development of the Thunderbird series of missiles that the army and RAF regiment retain them in use for longer to protect bases and airfields. The missiles too big for anything else, it is not a mobile system but again, here you get Rapier, the tracked rapier was a thing, and you also have Sea Wolf.
Sea Wolf is a smaller missile than Rapier, its lighter too, and as we know from OTL, once the radar and electronics bugs were worked out (to stop the whole damn system from just shutting down 'because') it was a very effective system. A potential SHORAAD weapon system for the army to engage the new Helicopter threat presented by Hind's and other attack helo's of the era.
Assuming making sure that Sandy's is hit by a car that then reverses over him several times is of course off the shelf....
And yeah, it makes sense, you save money, keep the treasury happy and you keep the jobs going at the firms making the already existant SAM's.
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This can also lead to the earlier development of the Sea Harrier as they're already keeping the carriers in some role, rather than as something of an after thought once the Invincibles are ordered.
Speaking of the Invincibles, retaining the Centaurs is going to affect their design as well, as the RN will want ships that can match the Centaurs but do it better with less people. The resulting design will not have the compromises of the Through Deck Cruisers and be true carriers with a reasonable sized air group.
I would assume this would mean that there wouldn't be space taken up by the Sea Dart, or in this case, Thunderbird launcher on it, this would be a good thing for sure, I'd assume that instead they might have a Sea Rapier instead that or any sea wolf launcher, this could well mean a bit more space for storage and equipment and a longer ski ramp.
I'm imagining ships only a little smaller than the Centaurs, with deck edge lifts, gas turbines, a ski jump and any missiles positioned so as to not interfere with flight operations. Also no dog bone shape to the hanger deck.
Thunderbird isn’t all that big - you aren’t going to be following the tanks up close, but as a Corps asset you don’t need to. In size terms it’s pretty similar to Patriot - albeit with bigger fins.
As for Sea Wolf, it’s slightly shorter than Rapier but nearly twice the weight. Key capability it has that Rapier doesn’t is hitting incoming missiles. If they’ve already got Rapier and Sea Skimmers haven’t proved themselves as a threat yet, I’m struggling to see the Treasury paying for them.
One of the attractions of Sea Rapier is that it’s a drop-in replacement for Sea Cat or Bofors. That means the minimum of impact the vessel - less than Goalkeeper CIWS but a bit more than Phalanx. Add low cost and I’m guessing it’ll be fitted like a CIWS system is today.
Post-Falklands the RN will need a CIWS system to defend against sea-skimmers. Sea Rapier is probably pretty well suited to this: missiles had the performance and accuracy needed & system has a radar. Upgrading it to work without a man in the loop would be hard but feasible.
You'd probably still want something like a CIWS as a terminal defence against missiles, with a Rapier you'd get 8 shots max, perhaps if there was some way to link it to the Sea Wolf's radar system as that can quite happily intercept missiles, then it would be better suited for the role.
Sea RAM has an 11 missile capability - and adding missiles to a Sea Rapier battery shouldn’t be all that hard.
Main issue is warhead weight: Rapier used a very small warhead as a “lethality enhancer” with a contact fuse to keep the weight down, and this appears to be why the RN rejected it. If the MoD is telling them to use a common missile, Rapier will end up growing to allow this and gaining a proximity fuse. End result is a better but heavier/less mobile system.
Main issue is warhead weight: Rapier used a very small warhead as a “lethality enhancer” with a contact fuse to keep the weight down, and this appears to be why the RN rejected it. If the MoD is telling them to use a common missile, Rapier will end up growing to allow this and gaining a proximity fuse. End result is a better but heavier/less mobile system.