The ships of the Jacob van Heemskerck class of the Royal Netherlands Navy were constructed as specialised air defence frigates. It was a further developement out of the Standard-frigates. Two ships were built. They served for about twenty years in the R.Neth. navy. Since 2005 both are in service as the Almirante Latorre class in the Chilean Navy.

When the B-58 Hustler bomber entered service in 1958 it was a very futuristic looking delta wing bomber creating a lot of sensation. Intended as a successor of the B-47 Stratojet it was capable of reaching twice the speed of sound.

However, development went not without problems and costs risings went so out of control that the whole project was almost cancelled a few times. Strategic Air Command was initially against ordering the B-58 for service, not only because of its complexity but also s...