Type 45

The Type 45 class is the Royal Navy's primary area air-defence platform, and in May 2026 one of its six hulls, HMS Dragon, was reported deployed to the Arabian Gulf in direct response to the Hormuz escalation. The deployment reflected the class's specific capability match: Type 45s were designed around the Sea Viper missile system and the Sampson AESA radar to counter saturation missile attacks, the precise threat Iran's deterrence doctrine relies on. No other ship class in the Royal Navy carries equivalent long-range area air-defence capability.

The six Type 45 destroyers (D32 HMS Daring through D37 HMS Duncan) were built by BAE Systems at yards in Govan and Portsmouth between 2006 and 2013. Displacement is approximately 8,000 tonnes full load, making them the largest surface combatants the Royal Navy operates outside carriers. Each ship carries 48 Sea Viper cells capable of engaging multiple simultaneous targets at ranges up to 120 kilometres. The Sampson radar is a dual-face active phased array capable of tracking over 1,000 targets simultaneously, a figure no legacy naval radar in Royal Navy service could approach. Ship's company is approximately 190, with space for a helicopter and a detachment of Royal Marines.

The class has faced sustained criticism over the reliability of its WR-21 intercooled recuperated gas turbines, which have required modification. In hotter-water operating environments such as the Persian Gulf, thermal management of the propulsion system has been a documented limitation. The Royal Navy's decision to deploy a Type 45 to the Gulf despite this known constraint signals that the air-defence requirement was judged to outweigh the propulsion risk, a choice that will be scrutinised if the ship's availability is reduced by the operating environment.