page_title: Type 965 radar
section_title: Ships with Type 965 radars
hierarchical_section_title: Type 965 radar / Ships with Type 965 radars
caption_attribution_description: Aerial view of HMS Bacchante
context_page_description: The Type 965 radar was VHF long-range aircraft warning radar used by warships of the Royal Navy from the 1960s onwards. The Type 965M, Type 965P, Type 965Q and Type 965R were improved versions; the Type 960, 965M and 965Q used the single bedstead AKE aerial, whilst the Type 965P and 965R used the double bedstead AKE aerial.
  The 965 is ultimately designed to a May 1950 requirement for a further updated version of the 1945 Type 960. The 960 provided long-range early warning on small ships, but had a very wide beam at 35° horizontal. In 1954 the idea of a general-purpose frigate with the ability to provide some fighter direction arose, which required a radar with a much narrower beam. Marconi responded with the 965, reducing the beam to 12°. Based on WWII technology, the 965 was subject to considerable radar clutter from waves. The Type 965Q and 965R were improvements on the 965M and 965P respectively, adding a COHO-based moving target indication mode to suppress clutter. Designed before the introduction of Doppler filtering, it was not able to detect low-level targets against a background, either landforms or high waves.
context_section_description: Type 965M with AKE(1) aerial
  The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was given a Type 965M system on her foremast when modernised in 1958-59.
  Type 41 Leopard-class frigates when modernised.
  Tribal-class frigates.
  Type 12M Leander-class frigates (though removed in the eight ships given the Ikara conversion in 1970-78 and the five ships given the Seawolf conversion in 1978-84).
  Weapon-class destroyers modernised to air direction destroyers.
  County-class destroyers Batch 1.
  The aircraft carrier HMS Centaur when refitted in 1963.  The radar was taken from the air direction destroyer Battleaxe.
  Tiger-class cruisers when modernised in the late 1960s.
  The carrier HMS Hermes when converted from the aircraft carrier role to the commando carrier role in 1971-73.
  Type 965P with AKE(2) aerial
  Battle-class destroyers - the four that were modernised to air direction destroyers.
  Type 61 Salisbury-class frigates when modernised in 1961-68. HMS Chichester had her Type 965 removed in 1973 when she was refitted as Hong Kong guardship.
  County-class destroyers Batch 2.
  The aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was given a Type 965Q on her lattice foremast when modernised in 1959-64.
  Type 82 Bristol-class destroyer, before it was replaced by Type 1022 radar when she was modernised in 1984-6.
  Type 965Q with AKE(1) aerial
  Type 965R with AKE(2) aerial
  The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was given two Type 965R systems on separate masts when modernised in 1967-70.
  Type 42 Sheffield-class destroyer Batch 1; Batch 2 had the Type 1022.
caption: HMS Bacchante in June 1973, with the Type 965M radar's single bedstead AKE(1) aerial on her mainmast.
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