UK Defence Forum

Not good news if true. If the LCU's go surely the LPD's are next..... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/05/royal-marines-20000-troops-cut-make-way-space-cyber-war-leaked/ Text: Royal Marines and 20,000 troops cut to make way for space and cyber war in leaked spending review plans Lord Wes...

Oh puleaze Precisely.... ....what a pathetic attempt at re-writing history What a pathetic attempt at starting an argument.....I think you're trolling Ron. There was always going to be additional MoD costs to bring the ships into service. They were kept confidential to the Ministry, a fact noted by...

This is the average cost per ship of designing, building, & getting into service a new class of modern frigate into the Royal Navy with everything that implies. This is exactly the point I am making Ron. RN and the UK taxpayer was originally promised five T31 Frigates for £1.25bn whilst reducin...

So what would you do about it without rewinding the clock or spending money you haven't got? I am not proposing anything, simply commenting on the current state of play. Given the large percentage increase in budget it's entirely possible modest improvements could be made to the baseline spec as co...

You are effing clueless if you think you can get a class of modern frigates bought and into service for less than 400 million each. Thanks Ron. I would agree completely if the T31's were to be configured as a 'modern frigate' but they aren't. Far from it in fact. They are Frigates in name only unle...

.....now it is 2B GBP. At £400m a pop the T31's really need to be a highly capable GP Frigate......not just a long distance gunboat with a large growth margin capable of 30knts. They should really have a mk45, Harpoon (or equivalent), at least 24 CAMM, some form of hull mounted sonar and Captas 1 o...

Interesting change of name Much better IMO :thumbup: I read the Bays comment as speculation rather than a certainty - though if they are trailing the concept then I’m sure they will be used alongside other RFAs like Argus. If this LRG concept is to become a reality in the next few years then the Ba...

Interesting article in the Telegraph this morning. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/26/uks-future-commando-force-radical-lethal-new-unit-fight-threats/ Confirmation that 2 LRG's (not LSG's?) are to be be formed either side of Suez and at least initially using the Bays. Text: UK's Future ...

https://www.navalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMDEX-2019-ST-Engineering-Unveils-Vanguard-130-Multi-Role-Combatant-768x513.jpg I give you what the T31 could have been, the Vanguard 130. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/05/french-naval-industry-looks-at-frigate-program-drones-as-poten...

I have to tend to agree with this statement. The original FLSS concept was for 2 ships, one East of Suez the other West - having the ability to refuel forward based ships is I think a good one, and with the four Tides allocated to the CSG then this is then the death nail for the two Waves. I can se...

Agree. It is very bad decision RN contracted T31 BEFORE SDSR2020. Bad decision. The UK needs Frigates too. A balanced approach must be sought. MSS idea must have been done 5-6 years ago. Really depends on what the MSS concept evolves into. Too early to say yet. As for funding I would rather take th...

Not sure we need a frigate in the Falklands or the Caribbean, not all the time, anyway. Or Gibraltar and the Med for that matter. They might even be useful running a form of APT(S) up and down the West Coast of Africa to Simonstown. Plenty of roles that we need cheaper platforms for Apart from the ...

Tempest414 wrote:So at the end it said that all 5 B 2 B 2.5's will be forward deployed as forward presence operating ship

Filling in for Frigates that should have been built in the first place....

Tempest414 wrote:Would be interesting to see what the navy wanted for 300 million per ship or 400 million over the 200 million every one was walking about

Clearly at that price point it was to be a lot more than a converted Point.

An Enforcer derivative perhaps?

The MoD as a whole, not just the RN needs to adjust its expectations ad aspirations to the resources it is likely to have. Hold that thought.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/25/boris-johnson-signals-increase-defence-spending-launches-review/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

shark bait wrote:Compare it to a similar sized Spanish patrol vessel;

Yep, start with seakeeping ability....

People say there is not enough fishery protection duty hulls. I am not sure here. The UK could double it's number of fisheries protection vessels and it still wouldn't be enough. Surveillance via drones could be a real game changer if the evidence gathered of illegal fishing led to a higher percent...

If it happens, the Rosyth yard can survive until mid-2030s. Would it not be more sensible to build additional T31's for RN to maintain the drumbeat and optimise cost effectiveness rather scratch around the world for one or two export hulls? With the amount of RN and RFA vessels required in the next...

5,000t+ (Iver hull most likely) 2-3,000t (Probably stretched River) I think RN need both. Considering the cost deference between each option, if RN really is to increase vessel numbers it is highly likley that it will be with OPV's rather than Frigates IMO, although possibly based more on Leander t...

Mighty lightly armed for a Warship....

....are there any historic threads in this forum discussing what kind of capabilities would be required to counter Iran's speedboat flotilla? The A140 setup in the 'gun boat' configuration (57mm, 2x 40mm) would seem ideally suited IMO. Quad packed VLS Spear3 would be a major boost for the T31's and...

Good news if true.......

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics ... p-building

Some interesting background here. https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/defence-notes/opinion-tripartite-naval-exercise-indication-shift/ An LSG widely distributed across the region and regularly operating in both the Indian Ocean and the west coast of Africa would make a big difference. A T31 forward ...

donald_of_tokyo wrote:I do not share to optimistic growing UK defense, sometimes discussed here, and this article looks more reflecting the real situation.

A welcome sense of perspective.
https://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com ... fence.html

Well BMT and Navantia joined together to bid the contract. I guess that’s there choice but I don’t see why it should be an issue. I’ve never understood the obsession in the naval world to have everything designed and built exclusively in the UK, no other section does. Type 31 has imo been a welcome...