Crown Colony Class Cruiser
With the 1977 decision to invest in nuclear powered aircraft carriers, it was decided that a class of nuclear powered air defence and anti-submarine escort ship was in order to properly escort the carriers over the great distances they would be expected to travel. The Admiralty originally called for eight ships, but that would be reduced to six ships, two per carrier, once the proposal finally passed through Parliament. Design work would be finished in 1978, prior to the carrier design, now called Formidable, with the first two keels laid that same year. The ships would again use an American basis, taking the general shape and superstructure design of a Virginia-class nuclear cruiser, fitted out with British radar sets and MK30 Mod 2 Sea Dart systems. The MK30 Mod 2, unlike the Mod 0 design found on most Sea Dart ships, allowed the use of Sea Dart-ER, making the Crown Colony-class cruisers the only ships in the fleet outside of the Minotaur-class cruisers capable of using them. The first two ships, Gibraltar and Malta, would enter service in early 1982 boasting improved versions of the Sea Dart-ER with higher performance than their original counterparts. The remaining four would enter service at a rate of one per year until 1986 when the final ship, Kenya, entered service. These ships would be tasked with escorting the nuclear powered Formidable-class carriers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and beyond.
Adding to the roster of surface combatants, the Royal Navy gets their first nuclear cruisers, a class of six AAW cruisers designed to be paired with the CVAN-1978 type carriers. Unlike the Type 43s, these boast extended range Sea Dart-ERs like those found on the Minotaur-class out of the same compact, quick reloading MK30-based launchers. These should form the highest end of the Royal Navy roster, presenting amazing capabilities, however, that remains to be seen with what else I concoct in the future. Enjoy!
