Type 42-class
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A Royal Navy series of destroyers optimized for anti-air warfare, built in the 1970s and 1980s, some still in operation. Like the U.S. Burke-class, there were several variants within the class; the British call these "batches" while the U.S. term is "flight". They are, however, considerably smaller than Burkes. Their area air defense weapon is the Sea Dart missile, of which 22 were carried in Batches 1 and 2, and 40 in Batch 3. Sea Dart, as found in the Falklands War, was not effective against low-flying targets. In that war, high-low threats were sometimes met by pairing the Type 42s with frigates armed with the Sea Wolf missile, but Type 42s alone had to depend on their 114mm-55 caliber gun, two 20 mm Phalanx close-in weapons systems, and pair of 20 mm autocannon. Two were sunk. All carry a Sea Lynx helicopter, and have three 12.75 inch torpedo tubes for close-in antisubmarine warfare.
They have gas turbine propulsion, a maximum speed of 29.5 knots, and an economical cruising speed of 18 knots.
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