Cornwall-class

The Cornwall class, also designated as the Type 22 Batch 3, was a class of four frigates built for the British Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. The Type 22 programme originated from a 1966 Royal Navy reappraisal of its surface fleet following the cancellation of the CVA-01 aircraft carrier programme, which identified the requirement for a missile-armed successor to the Type 12 Leander class. Detailed design work was conducted by Yarrow Shipbuilders, while overall responsibility remained with the Ship Department at Bath. While the earlier Batch 1 and Batch 2 vessels were designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, the Cornwall-class ships were completed to a revised design optimized for a general warfare role, incorporating lessons learned from the Falklands War.

The Cornwall-class frigates were configured as general-purpose warships and served as the largest frigates built for the Royal Navy to date. Propulsion was provided by a two-shaft Combination of Gas turbine And Gas turbine (COGAG) system featuring two Rolls-Royce Spey SM1A boost gas turbines and two Rolls-Royce Tyne RM3C cruise gas turbines. Electrical power was generated by Paxman Valenta 12RPA200 diesel engines.

Sensors carried by the frigates included the Type 967/968 air-search radar, Type 911 fire-control radars, the Type 1006 or 1007 navigation radar, the Type 2050 sonar, the Type 2031Z passive towed array sonar, the Type 162M bottom target classification sonar, and the Type 2008 underwater communications system. Defensively, they utilized NATO Seagnat decoy launchers.

Armament consisted of a 4.5-inch (113 mm) Mk 8 naval gun to provide naval gunfire support, eight GWS 60 Harpoon missile launchers in two quadruple configurations, two sextuple Sea Wolf anti-air missile launchers, and a 30 mm Goalkeeper close-in weapon system (CIWS). Secondary armaments included either two 30 mm DS30B guns or two 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns, alongside L7A2 general-purpose machine guns and M134 Miniguns. For anti-submarine operations, the frigates retained two triple STWS-2 torpedo tubes for launching Mk.46 or Stingray torpedoes. The class featured a flight deck and a hangar configured to support either a single Westland Sea King or EH101 Merlin helicopter, or up to two Westland Lynx helicopters.

Due to enhanced command, control, and coordination facilities, the Cornwall-class frigates frequently operated as flagships for NATO Task Groups. The class comprised HMS Cornwall, HMS Cumberland, HMS Campbeltown, and HMS Chatham. HMS Cornwall commissioned on 23 April 1988, HMS Campbeltown on 27 May 1989, HMS Cumberland on 10 June 1989, and HMS Chatham on 4 May 1990. All four vessels were decommissioned in 2011: HMS Chatham on 9 February, HMS Campbeltown in April, HMS Cumberland on 23 June, and HMS Cornwall on 30 June. HMS Cornwall was the final Type 22 frigate to retire from Royal Navy service. In July 2013, all four vessels were sold for scrap.