UK Defence Forum

The technologies are similar, the distinction is PESA has many steering elements manipulating single source, where as AESA has many steering elements generating their own source. As for MESAR, I thought a planar array was by definition single source? The image below shows this. http://www.radartutor...

NS family is GAN and replaces the SMART-S Mk2 which is not being marketed anymore. Good news, this is cutting edge stuff then, and I think this marks the first application of a Gallium radar in UK service. Artisan is AESA Have you got a decent source that confirms it is? I have never managed to fin...

I personally doubt if Babcock's has the skilled personnel at Rosyth that can build all the blocks there, as opposed to joining up pre-built blocks, a far simpler task. In a separate video one of the same guys said the bid Babcock submitted was for 100% build at Rosyth. He went on to say they would ...

If Babcock do build a 'Frigate Factory' it shows BAE have been totally taking the piss.

So it sounds like the advantage is enabling the Rivers to counter the Hybrid/Asymmetric threats at sea. It's not dissimilar to the US Coast Guard using their Offshore-Cutters overseas. The US are using increasingly sending cutters across the Pacific to engage with foreigncoast guards, and help tackl...

CL/Babcock It will be interesting to see if they contract out to CL. The program director said the bid they submitted was for 100% of the build at Rosyth, and once the contract was signed they would evaluate the business case for out sourcing some of the work. I think this means is they will get a ...

That's not an advantage, that's a list of places.

The only advantage I can think of is the River Class would looks way cooler with a 57mm up front. However in reality there is little reason for a skint Navy to be spending money here, its chucking good money at a problem that doesn't need fixing.

Exactly, its all foreign, the location of HQ is neither here nor there.

A little info on Tempests rival (translated from french); The French worried about the attitude of the Germans, accused of questioning the agreements and worrying about industrial rather than operational issues. Paris can not accept this partnership "under any conditions". According to an ...

That is an accurate assessment. The saving grace is at least the Frigate hull was selected, and in the future it will hopefully be more capable.

Let's not forget the most important thing, money.

Italy, Sweden and the UK have the engineering capability between them, what they lack is the cash to push through such a massive project. All that matters now its the money.

I struggle to see the advantage here. What would a future up-gunned OPV do that it can't do today?

Repulse wrote:Going to be interesting to see how it pans out, but what is clear it wasn’t just a wet dream from Gavin Williamson and is something very actively being pursued.

Yes, heard this from a couple of places now. It is a Navy driven project, Williamson only brought it to the surface.

How on earth did they manage to keep the unit cost down to £250m if they have chosen not to reuse the Because on entry to service these ships will be a little underwhelming. That budget covers the ship, a Thales radar and CMS, and three small guns. That's not very much at all! I assume Thales are g...

might have been better rn trying not to have 2 large carriers.......but we could have had a cracking escort and sub fleet Perhaps the RN could have spent the money on a large escort fleet, and then the RN would have nothing to escort other than American Carriers and would totally tied to American o...

What will be transferred from T23? Nothing. It was the original intent to have the contractor supply everything so the RN we're not exposed to any project risk, and it looks like that's what they're getting. On the plus side it should leave the T23 well equipped for sale. I’m not sure of the wisdom...

If it was my project I certainly wouldn't want two of my main suppliers to be in administration.

Easy to understand why Babcock has removed them from their marketing material.

Towns and Cities are boring, lets bring back some of the awesome names from the past;
Fearless
Fire Drake
Fury
Fairy

Or sell the ships? They'll have new engines, missiles, and radars so they might be quite valuable.

Note this from the 2018 equipment plan; Changes in planned expenditure The major change in Equipment Plan forecast expenditure since April 2017 is due to the move of SDSR15 Investment Funding, totalling approximately £1.9bn, from support to equipment procurement lines, primarily as the procurement f...

Lord Jim wrote:IF Artisan sets are available from the GP T-23s I am pretty sure they will use them

Thales are the system integrator, and Thales are supply their own combat system, so there's a high change they will also supply their own radar.

If the money is now available for new-build FLSS, just build more Bays. True, but surely that kind of money isn't kicking about down the back of the sofa? There's little benefit for new build here, these aren't high performance platforms, so the Nave should take advantage of the cheap second hand m...

Pseudo wrote:'H' is up next

What about F or G?

Japan has launched its on future combat air program (again), so who knows where their going.

With the F35 soaking up a lot of the market in Europe there aren't many others left to join. Spain have no firm plans at the moment, but I think they wanted to align with the French/Germans.

The River B2 should have been the BAE avenger, but we cant change that now, so lets just add 24 Mk41 cells and call it a day!