Website powered by

Royal Navy GW13 Convoy Escort Design

The GW13 and 13A proposals represent the other side of the convoy escort study while the GW11 and 12 were large and heavy ships for this mission, GW13 sacrificed much to make a more affordable and truly convoy escort oriented vessel. With it's barely 122m length and 7.000tons displacement it was among the smallest of designs in the GW series. To achieve this small size the designers sacrificed the 3" gun armament altogether, reverted to the austere Type 277Q radar set, and reduced the missile stowage to mere 30 missiles thus creating a pure air defence escort vessel for the convoys. As usual I do not have any sketch drawing to work with so I decided to use the GW14 design's sketch drawing and making a shorter version based on the data avaiable.

The design had the following characteristics:
Dimensions: 121.92m (wl) x 19,81 x 5,41m
Displacement: 7.000tons (full load)
Engines: 30.000shp, Steam Turbines (Probably English Electric Y100), 2 shafts
Range: Unknown probably 15-21.900km at 22km/h (8-12.900nm at 12knots)
Speed: 43km/h (24knots)
Armour: unknown probably 51mm Deck over Machinery and Magazines, 89mm Belt over Machinery and 64mm over Magazines (Missile and Guns)
Armaments:
6x2 40mm/70 OQF Mk XI AA Guns,
1x2 GWS.1 Sea Slug SAM

Sensors:
1x Type 277Q Surface/Air Search/Height Finder Radar
2x Type 901 Missile Control/Director Radar
6x Type 903 Fire-control Radar, one for each MRS.3 director
1x Type 960 Air Search Radar
1x Type 974 Surface Search/Navigation Radar
1x Type 992 Target indication/Surface/Air Search Radar

The A sub variant had 4x rather 6x 40mm Twin Bofors Guns otherwise no other changes. I've arranged the front guns in an elevated superfiring position to provide better fire arcs for both sides and flipped the boat crane to look somewhat more distinct.

The design had the following characteristics:
Dimensions: 121.92m (wl) x 19,81 x 5,41m
Displacement: 7.000tons (full load)
Engines: 30.000shp, Steam Turbines (Probably English Electric Y100), 2 shafts
Range: Unknown probably 15-21.900km at 22km/h (8-12.900nm at 12knots)
Speed: 43km/h (24knots)
Armour: unknown probably 51mm Deck over Machinery and Magazines, 89mm Belt over Machinery and 64mm over Magazines (Missile and Guns)
Armaments:
4x2 40mm/70 OQF Mk XI AA Guns,
1x2 GWS.1 Sea Slug SAM

Sensors:
1x Type 277Q Surface/Air Search/Height Finder Radar
2x Type 901 Missile Control/Director Radar
4x Type 903 Fire-control Radar, one for each MRS.3 director
1x Type 960 Air Search Radar
1x Type 974 Surface Search/Navigation Radar
1x Type 992 Target indication/Surface/Air Search Radar

The datapages:
i.imgur.com/sIuNLrN.jpg