Leander-class frigate

The Leander class, or Type 12I (Improved) frigates, was a class of twenty-six vessels built in three batches between 1959 and 1973 and was among the most numerous and long-lived classes of frigate in the Royal Navy. It grew from the Type 12 and Rothesay designs and from the Type 81 Tribal class, answering the policy failure of buying separate specialised frigates for anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and aircraft direction work by providing one general-purpose design that could carry a helicopter. The class had a high public profile through the BBC television drama series Warship, and the Leander silhouette became the face of the Royal Navy from the 1960s to the 1980s. The design or its derivatives were built for the navies of New Zealand, Chile, Australia, India and the Netherlands. Yarrow was involved in the Leander programme, and Navypedia lists its Scotstoun yard among the builders. All Leanders in Royal Navy service were decommissioned by the early 1990s because of the ageing design and the large crews.