Эсминцы типа "Ирокез": История канадского флота

Class of guided missile destroyers

Iroquois class destroyers, also known as Tribal class or DDG 280 class, were a class of four helicopter carrying, guided missile destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy. The ships were named to honour the First Nations of Canada. The Iroquois class are notable as the first all gas turbine powered ships of this class. Launched in the 1970s, they were originally fitted out for anti submarine warfare, using two CH 124 Sea King helicopters and other weapons, while their Mk III RIM 7 Sea Sparrow anti air missiles were sufficient only for point defense. A major upgrade programme in the 1990s overhauled them for area wide anti aircraft warfare with the installation of a vertical launch system for Standard SM 2MR Block IIIA missiles. Due to their extended service lives, the Iroquois class destroyers were used in a variety of operational roles. They served as flagships for NATO's maritime force, deployed as part of United Nations and NATO forces in the Adriatic, Arabian and Caribbean seas and Atlantic and Indian oceans. The destroyers also performed coastal security patrols and search and rescue missions nearer to Canada. One was sunk in a live fire exercise in 2007, two more were decommissioned in 2015 and the last in 2017.

With the disbandment of Banshee fighter aircraft squadrons and the retirement of the Second World War vintage destroyers in the early 1960s, the Royal Canadian Navy no longer had air cover nor fire support capabilities. The Royal Canadian Navy sought to fulfill both these capabilities with the General Purpose Frigate (GPF) design. However, due to rising costs and an ambitious Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer, who had his own ideas as to where the Royal Canadian Navy should spend its money, the GPF program was cancelled on 24 October 1963. After the cancellation of the GPF program, the Royal Canadian Navy continued to design a vessel able to fulfill the lost capabilities. Several designs were drawn up, one of which was an improved version of the GPF with a better missile system, anti submarine warfare (ASW) rocket and large calibre gun. In September 1964, Hellyer ordered an ASW design. The Royal Canadian Navy submitted a design that matched what Hellyer required that used steam turbines instead of gas and had a planned cost of $35 million, similar to the most recent ships constructed based on the
On 22 December 1964, Hellyer announced the planned construction of four new helicopter carrying destroyer escorts as part of a larger package of procurement for the navy. Though the Royal Canadian Navy had submitted an ASW design, it took a further four years to settle on a final one. This was due in large part to the need for the accommodation of large helicopters, variable depth sonar and the requirement to spread the industrial benefits around the country. In the end the design improved over the GPF in several ways. Instead of the twin semi automatic gun mount, the new design had a single fully automatic 5 inch gun. The GPF was intended to be armed with the RIM 24 Tartar missile system. The new design ended up with the RIM 7 Sea Sparrow missile system which was capable of taking on both missiles and aircraft. Personnel for the new class was to come from the discarded aircraft carrier which had been taken out of service after the government reduced forced levels. In December 1967, four new helicopter carrying destroyers were announced as part of the five year equipment program. In 1968, contracts were awarded to Davie Shipbuilding at Lauzon, Quebec and Marine Industries at Sorel, Quebec. The entire program ended up costing $252 million. With the arrival of the Iroquois class destroyers, a special service centre was created ashore with the same computer system, which was far more advanced at the time compared to anything else in the navy.

The Iroquois class were ordered in 1968 as a revised design of the GPF. Designed with enclosed citadel, bridge and machinery spaces, the sources disagree about the general description of the Iroquois class. Gardiner and Chumbley state that as designed the ships had a displacement of fully loaded. The destroyers were 423 feet (129 m) long overall and 398 feet (121 m) long at the waterline with a beam of 50 feet (15 m) and a draught of 14 feet (4 m). They had a complement of 258 and 30 aircrew attached to the ship's company. Macpherson and Barrie claim that the class displaced , was 426 feet (130 m) long overall with a beam of 50 feet (15 m) and a draught of 15 feet (5 m). They state the vessels had a maximum speed of and had a complement of 244. The Iroquois class had a landing platform with a double hauldown and Beartrap hauldown device. American and British destroyers and frigates at the time each carried a single small helicopter which was incapable of operating independently of the ship's sensors, and were effectively a system for extending the range of the weapons by carrying them away from the ship before launch. In contrast, the Iroquois class destroyers' much larger Sea Kings were able to carry a complete sensor suite and operate at much longer ranges independently of the launch ship. This allowed a single Iroquois to control a much larger area of the ocean, using both its own sensors and those of its helicopters, combining to scan larger areas.

Despite Huron being the most recently refitted Iroquois class destroyer, she was placed in mothballed status in 2000, due to a personnel shortage following defence cutbacks during the late 1990s. Huron was paid off in 2005, and sunk in a live fire exercise in 2007 by her sister ship Algonquin. In August 2013, Algonquin was involved in a collision with the auxiliary vessel during a naval exercise. Algonquin suffered significant damage along her port side hangar. The vessel was laid up following the collision. In May 2014, while visiting Boston, Massachusetts, severe cracks were discovered in the hull of Iroquois requiring her immediate return to Canada and lay up for inspection. The inspection determined the hull was compromised and would require the ship to be laid up indefinitely. On 19 September 2014, the Royal Canadian Navy announced that these two ships were to be paid off along with the , leaving only Athabaskan active. On 27 November 2015, Algonquin, along with Protecteur, was sold to be broken up for scrap to R. J. MacIsaac Ltd. of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. They were towed to Liverpool, Nova Scotia where the work will be done. On 10 March 2017 Athabaskan, the last active ship in the class, was decommissioned.

In 2008 the Single Class Surface Combatant Project which was included in the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy was announced as the replacement for the Iroquois class. The new vessels will eventually replace the Halifax class, as well as the capabilities previously provided by the Iroquois class, beginning in about the mid 2020s. In October 2018, a group led by BAE Systems along with its partners Lockheed Martin Canada, CAE Inc., L3 Technologies, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates and Ultra Electronics, were selected as the preferred design. On 8 February 2019, Canada signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin Canada, BAE Systems, Inc. and Irving Shipbuilding to design and construct the $60 billion Canadian Surface Combatant project.