Blackwood-class frigate

The Type 14 Blackwood class were a twelve ship class of "second-rate" anti-submarine warfare frigates of the Royal Navy, designed and built during the increasing threat from the Soviet Union's large fleet of submarines that roamed the Atlantic Ocean.

Design
They were designed to be cheaper and smaller to complement the expensive Type 12 frigates and had light armament. However their antisubmarine armament of two limbo mortars, Mk 20 torpedoes and sonar fit equaled the larger type 12 and as the crews of the Type 14 concentrated almost entirely on practicing and thinking about anti submarine warfare, they were often the most effective frigates in anti submarine exercises till the mid 1960s. The class were very specialised for the anti-submarine role and thus had little capability in any other role, though they did perform fishery protection duties during the Cod Wars. One of the ships, Exmouth, was later converted to gas turbines in 1966, becoming the first major warship of the Royal Navy to be so powered.

After experience with these frigates, the admiralty decided to ensure that quality was the top priority of all ships, even though it meant having a smaller fleet.

In the late 1950s, during their time on patrols around Iceland to ensure that Iceland did not interfere with British fishermen's attempts to fish, problems were found with the hulls of the Type 14s in such heavy waters, such that their hulls had to be strengthened to cope with these patrols. However, they proved to be good seaboats throughout the dispute, which continued into the mid-1970s. The low profile of the superstructure and to a degree the fact much of the frigate superstructure, ran underwater and they were almost a sort of semi submersible in the deep Atlantic was in part a deliberate design feature to allow surprise attacks into surfaced Russian submarine packs. The Type 14 was flawed by the lack of a 3/4 inch deck gun to counter a submarine that decided to fight back on the surface, and the general lack of  space in the design.

Service
The Type 14s' limited size, at just 310 ft (94 m), restricted them from continuing past the 1970s and continuing the work as anti-submarine ships. Their small hull limited the extent of modifications and upgrades possible, preventing the Type 14s from being modernised with more effective weapons, effectively rendering them obsolete. All were decommissioned in the 1970s.

Royal Navy
The Royal Navy ships were all named after British captains. Many had been in the Napoleonic wars and some were present at the Battle of Trafalgar


 * Blackwood - Henry Blackwood
 * Duncan - Adam Duncan
 * Dundas - James Whitley Deans Dundas
 * Exmouth - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
 * Grafton - Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
 * Hardy - Vice Admiral Thomas Hardy
 * Keppel - Augustus Keppel
 * Malcolm - Pulteney Malcolm
 * Murray - George Murray
 * Palliser - Hugh Palliser
 * Pellew - Israel Pellew
 * Russell - Thomas McNamara Russell

Indian Navy
Three ships were built for the Indian Navy in the late 1950s


 * Khukri, sunk by the Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor on 8 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
 * Kirpan
 * Kuthar