From the Daily Mail
Posted on 05/01/2012 7:54:07 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Life on Royal Navy's Falklands-bound HMS Dauntless
It is one of the Royal Navy's most advanced and powerful warships, now on its way to the other side of the world; destination - the Falkland Islands.
HMS Dauntless is the largest destroyer ever built for the Royal Navy, made from nearly 3,000 tonnes of steel. Its wide hull helps to support its two massive radar.
This Type 45 destroyer is radically different in design from earlier warships. The sleek, angled lines means it appears no larger than a fishing boat on another ship's radar. It is the navy's first stealth warship.
This is also the first time that a Type 45 destroyer has been deployed to the Falklands and the first time the navy has invited a TV crew on board a Type 45 during a deployment.
Many of the 200-strong crew were not even born when a much larger task force left to liberate the islands exactly 30 years ago.
But there are still a few veterans of that conflict on board. Weapons engineer Steve Collins was just 18 when he was on HMS Antelope, sunk by the Argentine air force in San Carlos Sound, better known as Bomb Alley. That was his very first deployment. And this will be his last.
He says he is looking forward to seeing the islands once again and visiting the memorials. But he also insists the deployment is nothing out of the ordinary.
Gary Morris, another Falklands veteran serving on board, also dismisses talk that this deployment to the South Atlantic is an act of "provocation" towards Argentina.
It is, he says, routine to have a Royal Navy warship protecting a piece of sovereign British territory.
The ship's captain, Will Warren
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
From the Daily Mail
Don’t they mean “The Maldives”?
Cool!
Yep, that would be what the TOTUS calls it.
The rest of the Spanish-speaking world might refer to it as “las Malvinas”.
Heh. And they thought Quayle was dumb.
The Brits like their sailors to wear those head-face coverings. I assuming it is a for fire protection.
they are to protect against flash burns.
Uh, the Maldives are south of India in the Indian Ocean. Isla Malvinas is the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
How the mighty have fallen. Britain ruled the waves, not long ago.
...which is really just an update of a concept that goes back to the very first tank crews in WWI who wore chain mail veils to protect from spalling...
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Tell that to Obama that's what he called it last week.
What is spalling?
rivets and steel/lead fragments blown into the tank...
Thanks.
Spalling is essentially the effect of turning the interior of an armored vehicle into anti-personnel projectiles. Even if a vehicle’s armor plate is thick and dense enough to prevent penetration, adequate compression and shock waves can cause the interior of the armor plate to fragment and splinter potentially injuring/killing the crew. US anti-armor rounds consist generally of kinetic (sabot) and chemical (HEAT) rounds for which spalling is largely a secondary effect. The British make extensive use of the HESH round for which spalling is its primary effect.
Thank you very much.
Unless HMS Dauntless is paired with a Type 23 Frigate, it is a sitting duck with no real anti-submarine or anti-surface capabilities.
I bet she rolls like a pig in heavy weather. Think of the wind resistance on that superstructure.
Only if the helicopter is not operational for some reason.
Weather you may say, but 1982 proved that the RN will operate helicopters in more extreme weather than in peacetime.
1 or two Lynx HMA.8 can provide anti-submarine cover. But the 4 Sea Skua missiles that they can carry are a joke. What are these going to do against Argentina’s modified Type 42 Destroyer (with Exocet missiles), or 4 Almirante Brown class destroyers (8 MM 40 Exocet SSM). Even Argentina’s corvettes have better anti-ship capabilities.
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