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Quoted

The Type 22 Broadsword class is a class of frigate built for the Royal Navy. Fourteen of the class were built in total, with production divided into three batches. Four Batch 3 ships remain in service with the Royal Navy but are to be decommissioned in spring 2011. Seven ships of the earlier batches have been sold for further service with Brazil, Romania and Chile, two have been sunk as targets and the other sold for scrapping.

Evolution
The Type 22 was intended as a follow-on class to frigates of the successful Type 12 ("Rothesay" and "Whitby") and the Type 12M ("Leander") classes at a time when the Royal Navy drew a clear distinction between anti-submarine escorts (known as frigates) and air defence ships (destroyers). Type 22s thus began as ASW vessels, but were later to evolve into GPFs (general-purpose frigates) as the ASW/AD distinction blurred.
The role of the Type 22 within overall force architecture can be gauged from a naval staff requirement drawn up in 1967. Following the demise of the future carrier programme (CVA-01), the RN undertook a complete reappraisal of the future surface fleet, and concluded that the following five new ship types were required:

• A cruiser-type ship to operate large ASW helicopters (this requirement eventually led to the Invincible class carriers);
• An air defence destroyer smaller and cheaper than the 'County' class (this resulted in the Type 42 programme);
• A missile-armed frigate as an eventual successor to the Leander class (this requirement led to the Type 22);
• A cheap patrol frigate (this requirement led to the Type 21); and
• A dual-role MCMV successor to the 'Ton' class (this resulted in the 'Hunt' class)

Of these, the air defence destroyer appears to have been given highest priority, the imperative being to get Sea Dart to sea in numbers to replace the air defence capability which would be lost with the premature demise of the carrier fleet.
Visually, the Type 12 lineage in the Type 22 design is less than obvious, though there are said to be similarities in the underwater hull form. Due to the workload of the Admiralty design department in the 1960s, a private design (Type 21) was purchased as an interim stop-gap whilst the Type 22 was under development. The design process, already hampered by the priority given to the Type 21 and the urgently-needed Type 42, was further protracted by attempts to produce a common Anglo-Dutch design. The first Type 22 order was placed in 1972 with Yarrow Shipbuilders; Yarrow undertook much of the detailed design work whilst overall responsibility remained with the Ship Department at Bath.
The length of the first four Type 22s was dictated by the dimensions of the undercover Frigate Refit Complex at Devonport Dockyard. The ships would be powered by a combination of Olympus and Tyne gas turbines in a COGOG (COmbined Gas turbine Or Gas turbine) arrangement. Machinery spaces were sited as far aft as possible to minimise shaft lengths. The after configuration was dictated by the requirement for a large hangar and a full-width flight deck..
Weapons fit was determined by the primary ASW role combined with a perceived need for a general purpose capability. The principal ASW weapons systems were the ship's Lynx helicopter and triple torpedo tubes (STWS), with 2087 towed array sonar a key part of the sensors fit. Air defence was provided in the form of two 'six-pack' launchers for the Seawolf (GWS 25) point-defence missile system. Surface warfare requirements were met by the provision of four Exocet SSM launchers, the standard RN fit at that time. The Broadsword design was unique to the Royal Navy in lacking a main gun armament. Although some of the Leander Class frigates had lost their main gun during upgrades, (Broadsword was the first to be designed from the beginning without a main cannon. This changed with the introduction of the Batch III ships.
Ordering of Type 22s proceeded slowly, in part because of the comparatively high unit cost of the ships. The unit cost of the last Type 12Ms had been about £10m; Type 21s cost around £20m each; when the first Type 22s were ordered, unit costs were estimated at £30m though, by the time that the first ship (HMS Broadsword) commissioned in 1979, inflation had driven this figure up to £68m, which was far higher than the cost of the contemporary Type 42s (HMS Glasgow, also commissioned in 1979, cost £40m).
After the first four ("Batch I") ships, the design was "stretched", with the Frigate Refit Complex suitably enlarged. Visually, and in addition to the increase in length, the biggest difference was the sharply raked stem, usually indicative of bow sonar (though none of the Batch II ships was thus fitted). An important addition to the Batch II group was a new Computer Assisted Command System (CACS-1), replacing the CAAIS fitted to the Batch I ships. A revised machinery installation was adopted from HMS Brave onwards, with Spey turbines replacing the previous Olympus. The future machinery arrangement would be COGAG (Combined Gas turbine And Gas turbine). By 1982, the quoted unit cost of a Type 22 had risen to £127m.



HMS London (F95)
Operator:................. Royal Navy
Builder: .................. Yarrow Shipbuilders
Laid down: .............. 7 February 1983
Launched: ............... 27 October 1984
Commissioned: ........... 5 June 1987
Decommissioned: ...... 14 January 1999
Fate: ..................... Sold to Romania on 14 January 2003
In Romania:
Name: ................... ROS Regina Maria (F222)
Acquired: ............... 14 January 2003
Commissioned: ........ 21 April 2005
Fate: .................... In service

Class and type: Type 22 frigate
Displacement: ......... 5,300 tonnes
Length: ................. 148.1 m (486 ft 9 in)
Beam: .................... 14.8 m (48 ft 6 in)
Draught: ................. 6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion: ............... 2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines (54,000 shp / 40 MW)
............................. 2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp / 7.2 MW)
Speed: .................. 18 knots (33 km/h) cruise 30 knots (56 km/h) maximum
Complement: ......... 250
Armament: UK
2 × 6 GWS25 Seawolf SAM Launchers
4 × 1 MM.38 Exocet SSM Launchers
2 × Twin 30 mm AA
2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns
4 × 7.62mm GPMGs
Romania: 76/62 Oto Metara Super-Rapid gun
Aircraft carried, UK: Lynx Mk.8
Romania: IAR-330 Puma Naval
*******************************************************************************
HMS Coventry (F98 ):
Operator: ................ Royal Navy
Builder: .................. Swan Hunter
Laid down: ...............29 March 1984
Launched: ................ 8 April 1986
Commissioned: ......... 14 October 1988
Decommissioned: ...... 17 January 2002
Fate: Sold to Romania on 14 January 2003

Displacement: ............ 4,800 tons
Length: .................. 146.5 m (480 ft)
Beam: .................... 14.8 m (48 ft)
Draught: ................... 6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion: ................2-shaft COGOG
...............................2 × Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines (54,000 shp / 40 MW)
...............................2 × Rolls-Royce Tyne RM1C cruise gas turbines (9,700 shp / 7.2 MW)
Speed: .................... 18 knots (33.3 km/h) cruise 30 knots (56 km/h), full Range: 8,000 nm (16,000 km)
Complement: ........... 273
Armament, UK:
2 × 6 GWS25 Sea Wolf SAM launchers
4 × 1 Exocet SSM launchers
2 × Twin 30 mm AA guns
2 × 20 mm GAM-BO1 guns
4 × 7.62 mm GPMGs
Aircraft carried, UK: 2 × Lynx MK 8 helicopters

Quoted from "#youtube"

Thames News were given unique access to HMS London, The Royal Navy's newest Warship. Boasting to be the tenth ship to bear the name. With its Lynx Helicopter and air to air missile system - HMS London was a formidable ship of war - decommissioned in 1999 she was eventually sold to Romania and re named Regina Maria.