Druid

HMS Druid represents a hypothetical design for a “Super Daring”-class of destroyer that was considered during the early 1950s. British experience with the Tribal-class destroyers had shown the value of large destroyers with a heavy gun armament, which could be capable of fulfilling some of the traditional cruiser roles.

Historical Background

The “Super Daring” idea evolved from British studies into creating a new type of multipurpose escort ship. The emergence of the Soviet Sverdlov-class cruisers and the need for shore bombardment during the Korean War meant that gun ships were still needed by the Royal Navy, in addition to ASW vessels. The Royal Navy’s surviving Town- and Crown Colony-class cruisers would require extensive modernization, in order to deal with the rapidly evolving aerial threats. Although it was realised that missiles would form the mainstay of future anti-aircraft defences, the British SeaSlug system was too large to fit onto contemporary destroyer-sized vessels, and the cost of fully modernizing a cruiser was prohibitive in the post-war economic climate.

Initially, plans were drawn up for a modernized version of the Daring-class destroyer, as it was felt that two Daring-class destroyers would be able to successfully combat a Sverdlov-class cruiser through the weight of gunfire, whilst closing to launch torpedoes. Initial designs included a repeat version of the Daring-class with minimal modifications, as well as proposed variants with improved propulsion plants. From June 1954, designs for a “Fast A/S” escort were drawn up. The possible designs rapidly changed as specifications were drawn up and found to be unattainable.

The list of desired characteristics included a good surface combat capability, long-range ASW detection and attack, and anti-aircraft defences. When the specifications were examined, it was realised that the requirements would be impossible to achieve on a Daring hull, due to space, displacement, and electrical capacity. It was estimated that the desired characteristics would require a minimum displacement of 5,000 tons, making the ship the same size as a Dido cruiser, but with no armor protection. The ship would be too large to be unprotected, but adding sufficient armor protection would increase displacement further, making the ship too large. As a result, further versions of the design were considered, which removed equipment in order to bring the displacement within acceptable limits.

By 1955, a “gun fast escort” design of 4,500 tons had been developed, featuring 114 mm guns at the expense of all ASW weapons. Although the intended 127 mm N2 gun design had been cancelled, there was still hope that a simpler 127 mm twin gun mount could still be developed. Eventually, plans for a “Super Daring” moved on. A larger design of 4,800 tons was requested, and this would eventually lead to the County-class missile destroyer.

Historically, six ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Druid, after the Druids of the Celtic religion. A Daring-class destroyer was planned to be the seventh ship, but her name was changed before construction to HMS Diana.

In Game

See here for links to Update notes.

• Available for testing by supertesters in the game starting from Update 0.10.3.

• Update 0.10.5:
  • Available in the "Research Bureau" section of the Armory for 56,000 Research points.