Almirante-class destroyer

The Almirante class were two destroyers built for the Chilean Navy by Vickers in Barrow in Furness, UK, in 1960, named after Chilean admirals. Their weapons and Marconi sensors were in advance of the RN Daring class, but their internal layout resembled that of the Battle class. They served until the late 1990s. They were fitted with a unique Vickers-designed 4-inch dual purpose naval gun, which fired up to 50 rounds per minute. The gun was in advance of the standard RN 4.5-inch guns, more automated and reliable than the Tiger-class 3 and 6-inch mounts, but not water-cooled. It was rejected for RN use because of doubt about its sustained firing, the large stocks of surplus WW2 single 4.5 and twin 4-inch guns which the RN claimed wrongly were close to the new 4-inch N(R) in performance, and mainly because it was a private out-of-house, Vickers design. The ships were modernised in Britain in 1975, and decommissioned in the late 1990s.