But the euphoria of her debut as the pride of the fleet has been tempered by the broadsides of the National Audit Office.

The independent body has accused the MoD of poor contract management and over optimism when it first planned the replacement for the Type 42 destroyer.

Former naval officer and editor of Warship World, Steve Bush, said the problems go back to the very start when the destroyers were going to be a joint venture with the French and Italians.

He also says the government's failure to commit to building 12 Type 45s, which had been first promised, had also led to increased costs.

'Essentially the British decided to go it alone after the Europeans took too long, and so they had to go back to the drawing board alone and start from scratch,' he says.

'Then there was the situation where the MoD would not commit to the number of destroyers it wanted, ranging from the 12 we began with to the six that are now going to be built.

'A truism of defence projects like this is that if you only order a small number of vessels you will end up paying much more for each unit, and this is what has happened to Type 45.'

With its British designed Sampson Radar, the Daring class can still justifiably claim to be one of the most advanced air defence ships in the world.

But Mr Bush says it should have gone further than that.

'When they built the ship they left space in the design for systems like phalanx, which provides close air defence and for anti-submarine torpedo tubes,' he says.

'But because there was a lack of commitment from the MoD on finance those systems are still to be paid for.

'This government has shown over the past decade that it doesn't rate defence as highly as other areas and that is why we will see cuts and half measures for some time to come.'

The increase in cost from £5bn to the current forecast of £6.46bn is 29 per cent, and public accounts committee chairman Edward Leigh said the programme resembled other expensive MoD deals.

Currently the £4bn supercarriers, to be based in Portsmouth, are running one or two years later than planned.

And other delayed projects include the Nimrod MRA4 aircraft and the Astute class submarines.

Mr Leigh said: 'There is a familiar ring about a major MoD equipment procurement which begins with over-optimism about costs and timescales and commercial arrangements failing to reflect the risks, and ends with costs soaring, significant delays to delivery and ageing existing equipment having to be patched up until the new kit becomes operational.

'The fleet of Type 45s will not have their full capability until the middle of the next decade, when other important pieces of kit are fitted.

'In the mean time, the navy will be left struggling to keep in service the existing Type 42 destroyers that were designed and built for the Cold War.'

Dr Michael Asteris, a defence economics expert at the University of Portsmouth, blamed the overspend on the government's decision not to build all 12 Type 45s.

'The loss of economy of scale happened when the MoD decided against ordering 12 ships, and that has had a knock-on throughout the programme,' he says.

'It's not an overspend like the Nimrod aircraft, but it remains a huge amount of money and people will think of that in practical terms.

'£1.5bn is equivalent to the cost of one-and-a-half Type 45s, so there will be the view that you could have an extra ship and then maybe a few armoured vehicles.'

The government, however, remained upbeat about the Type 45 programme, saying the sea trials had been met ahead of schedule.

Quentin Davies, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support added: 'These are complex, sophisticated warships and where problems arose in the early stages the MoD gripped the issue, renegotiated contracts where required and got the programme on track.

'I have been following this programme closely since my appointment, and I am pleased to be able to say that progress with both building and sea trials is currently going very well.

'These ships will form one of the essential pillars of the Royal Navy in the 21st Century.'


Sampson Radar is ships' powerful tool

The Sea Viper system was heralded as HMS Daring arrived in Portsmouth, but there are several other important elements to the ship.

The missiles cannot work until they find a target, and the Sampson Radar is the Daring class of ship's powerful tool.

Built by BAE Systems Insyte, the spiky radar that sits high above the ship was tested at Portsdown Hill.

It has hundreds of sensors that give the ship a field of vision hundreds of kilometres wide and hundreds high.

There is also the Long Range Radar on the ship, which is a more conventional design. But without Sea Viper the ship's company is left with only machine calibre main guns and small calibre guns for defence of the vessel itself.


Ship's big welcome

The largest crowds since the Trafalgar 200 celebrations in 2005 ensured that HMS Daring received a warm welcome to her home at Portsmouth Naval Base.

Grey clouds hanging low over the harbour did nothing to dampen the mood on January 28 when the ship arrived for the first time under the White Ensign.

As reported in The News, Portsmouth Naval Base Commander Commodore Rob Thompson said the ship was a credit to the navy's approach of taking 'positive risk' to be at the cutting edge of technology.

And there were plaudits from the ship's company as they showed off the larger accommodation berths and modern on-board facilities.

With iPod charging points, wider gangways and high-speed performance, sailors said they excited about going to work. The ship endured force 12 gales as she made her way to the south coast from Scotland.


Top brass kept name of weapon a close secret

Navy top brass kept the name of the Daring class missile system a closely-guarded secret until the first ship arrived at Portsmouth.

With great fanfare Vice Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, Chief of Material (Fleet) for the Ministry of Defence, announced at a press conference that Sea Viper would be a world-class weapon.

Previously called the Principal Anti Air Missile System (Paams), Sea Viper is the Type 45's primary weapons platform and is designed to combat enemy missile attacks on ships.

It consists of a 48-cell vertical missile launcher that will allow the destroyer to tackle targets from 360 degrees.

The missiles themselves are a mix of Aster 15s and Aster 30s, which can strike targets at distances of up to 30km (19 miles) and 100km (62 miles) respectively.

Speaking at the launch, Vice Adm Soar said: 'The system is capable of detecting and tracking several hundred targets including the supersonic, sea skimming and high altitude targets out to 400 kilometres.'


How the MOD managed the problems

The National Audit Office blamed the delays in the Type 45 programme on over-optimism on what could be achieved, inappropriate commercial arrangements and poor project management.

But the report also recognised that since the early errors the MoD had taken a step in the right direction.

It said: 'The Department has taken action to resolve these problems and the project is now more mature and making better progress.

'As the department had always planned, several pieces of equipment will be fitted to the destroyers incrementally after they come into service meaning that the full capability will not be available until the middle of the next decade.'

Portsmouth South Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, pictured below, said: 'It's good that they took action but this is just like so many defence contracts where we don't seem to see lessons being learned.

'The Astute submarines are a case in point, where you would think the second and third boats would be cheaper than the first.

'They're not, and it makes you think that smart procurement is not happening.'