New ship, new weapons

IF YOU thought fireworks were solely a November, nighttime experience, think again.

Leaving a trail of sparks and smoke over the waters of the English Channel is HMS Dragon, testing one of her last lines of defence against missile attack.

Ahead of her inaugural visit to Cardiff, her affiliated city, which begins on Thursday, the fourth of the Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers has been working with military scientists to test her weapons and defensive systems.

The Portsmouth-based warship used the ranges off Portland Bill, with a team from DSTL – the MoD’s in-house scientists – ashore monitoring the destroyer’s radar cross section and infra red characteristics as she fired off her decoy flares.

The distinctive angular nature of the Daring class is designed to minimise the ‘blip’ the ships produce on an enemy radar screen and suggest instead of an 8,500-ton warship bristling with weaponry the target is an innocuous small fishing vessel.

A decoy round is loaded into the launcher by one of Daring’s leading hand in anti-flash gear

That coupled with the Sea Viper missile system – which can take out incoming missiles and aircraft at ranges of up to 75 miles away – means that no aerial foe should get close to Dragon…

…but if something should penetrate the Dragon’s outer defences, among the inner ring protecting the ship are ‘decoy munitions’: flares (which in D35’s case are improved variants of existing flares in service, designed to lure away heat-seeking missiles), and the Siren Active Decoy Round (which attempts to do the same to radar-guided missiles).

To ensure the trials off Portland went as planned, it was down to Dragon’s electronic warfare specialists to prepare the decoys, carry out some complex work on the launchers before loading them for the first firing.

“It was my first time as leading hand in charge of a firing serial,” explained 29-year-old LS Wayne Fugatt from Christchurch, who was the loading team leader.

“It’s a unique experience to be involved in taking a warship as capable as this out of build and up to her first decoy firing. It fills me with confidence that we’ve the right kit to do the job when it matters.”

After her visit to Cardiff, the destroyer will resume her trials before a spot of Easter leave. She’ll formally enter service with the Royal Navy on April 27 although it will be the spring of 2013 before she deploys for the first time.