The Royal Navy’s next generation of air-defence warship is taking shape on land, at sea and in the shipyards as progress on the Type 45 destroyers continues apace.

A dedicated computer complex which will put the ships’ sophisticated radar and command systems through their paces has been ‘switched on’ in Portsmouth as a barge which will test the destroyers’ anti-air missiles – the Type 45’s primary purpose – sits in the water once more.

In what looks like a huge grey shed on Portsdown Hill overlooking the ships’ future home port, experts are testing early versions of the hi-tech computer network which will be the brains behind PAAMS – the Principal Anti-Air Missile System – designed to protect the future Fleet from air attack.

PAAMS itself will be tested using the large trials barge Longbow, last used by the MOD to trial the Seawolf missile.

Shipwrights and engineers in Portsmouth Naval Base are converting the 12,000-ton vessel, which spent more than a decade in Brixham in Devon before being reactivated.

A team of 70 people is fitting a distinctive Type 45 mast to Longbow as well as creating a missile silo ahead of extensive trials of PAAMs off Toulon in the Mediterranean, due to start late next year until the end of 2006.

Still to be fitted to the barge and the test centre on Portsdown Hill is the distinctive Sampson radar to feed the combat systems the information they need to take out incoming missiles and aircraft.

The test centre – Maritime Integration Support Centre – will be used by defence experts to try out combat, control and command systems for the Type 45, and later on the Navy’s future carriers, sparing the ships months of tests and trials at sea.

“Without a centre like the MISC, it would not be possible to provide Type 45s for the Navy in time,” said Andrew Bowden of BAE Systems’ Type 45 Project.

“Using shore bases to test sea systems is not new; the difference here is that this is much larger – we’ve got one eye on the future.”

The £15m complex will resemble the destroyers to some degree, with a mock-up bridge and working main and aft masts and radar fitted eventually, as well as operations and communications rooms in the heart of the building.

Already working is an early version of the computer tracking system, complete with three full-colour screens which allows an operator to keep tabs on targets and friendly forces.

There will be around 25 such consoles in the real Type 45 operations room, which will be much less dark and cramped than Type 42, 23 and carrier equivalents.

The first of the class, HMS Daring, is slowly beginning to resemble a ship at last, both in Portsmouth where the VT Group is building her bow and main mast, and on the Clyde where BAE Systems is building the remainder of the hull.

The finished vessel will be assembled at BAE’s Scotstoun yard and will be launched in traditional style down a slipway. She’s due to join the Fleet in 2007.