Daring

The Daring class, also known as the Type 45, was built to replace the Royal Navy's Type 42 destroyers with a much more capable area air-defense platform. Six ships were completed, led by HMS Daring. The class was shaped by post-Falklands lessons and by the requirement to protect UK and allied task groups from modern aircraft and anti-ship missile threats.

Type 45 destroyers center on the Sea Viper air-defense system, combining PAAMS missiles with powerful surveillance and fire-control radars. The ships are optimized for anti-air and anti-missile warfare rather than land attack or heavy anti-surface missile loads. Their value lies in detecting, tracking, and engaging complex air threats across a maritime task group.

The Daring class is one of the Royal Navy's most capable surface combatant groups, but its service history has also been shaped by power and propulsion reliability work and availability constraints. That combination matters: the class offers very high air-defense capability when available, while sustainment and modernization determine how much of that capability can be kept at sea.