Construction
The Type 42 destroyers (also known as the Sheffield-class) were made in three batches; Cardiff was built in the first. She cost over £30 million, which was double her original quoted price. Her keel was laid down on 6 November 1972, at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd in Cumbria. The build was interrupted by a labour shortage at Vickers. To solve this problem, she was towed to Swan Hunter in Tyne and Wear and completed there.
Type 42s were designed as anti-aircraft vessels primarily equipped with the Sea Dart, a surface-to-air missile system capable of hitting targets up to 56 kilometres (30 nmi) away. Cardiff’s secondary weapon system was a 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun, capable of firing 21-kilogram (46 lb) shells to a range of 22 kilometres (12 nmi). After the Falklands War, in which two Type 42s were sunk by enemy aircraft, the entire class was equipped with the Phalanx close-in weapon system, a Gatling cannon that fires 3,000 rounds per minute and is designed to shoot down anti-ship missiles.
Read more about this topic: HMS Cardiff (D108)
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