Bollom did not identify the likely contenders but in addition to Babcock’s Rosyth facility, others expected to be in the running are Harland & Wolff’s facility in Belfast, Able UK’s Seaton Port dry dock, Peel Ports’ Inchgreen Dry Dock in Greenock, and No 5 Dock at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead sit...

UK to compete future carrier dry dock periods reported by Janes A series of competitions are to be run for future dry dock periods for the UK Royal Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. Giving evidence on 28 September to the UK parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on the progress of...

Short BBC report from onboard QE...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-54411984

The covid-19 virus is about 100 nanometers in size. So a very very small calibre weapon would be required, and an awful lot ammunition. Targeting might be an issue...

Plus if the carrier group is moving at greater than 15 kts Probably not going to happen a lot. 16 knots I believe is fleet speed. I'd be surprised if the T26 cannot listen at that speed. Fleet speed will be 18 knots, but you're right most time will be spent at slower speeds. I think the T23's top q...

No. The T26 is designed to out perform Russian subs. The T31 never will. Plus if the carrier group is moving at greater than 15 kts, the pair of T26 will need to conduct "sprint and drift" operations where the drift phase is running ultra quiet at 12-15 kts and then a sprint phase to catch...

As for the escorts needed for the Carriers I have said for sometime now that maybe POW should head a NATO carrier group this could mean POW gets one T-45 and one T-23/26 and the remaining escorts come from allied members maybe we need to be more realistic and this needs to be done for both carriers...

This all brings be back to what’s the point of a T31 being held in UK waters just for FRE ? The forward deployed ones will be quicker responds the FRE one won’t offer anything the other havnt got and it’s over kill just to follow other nations vessels through UK waters. You have to remember that fo...

The Fleet Ready Escort (FRE) is a single warship maintained at high readiness for deployment at short notice anywhere in the world. This is in effect the RN contingency force. However, in recent years the role has been gapped on occasions, or combined with the TAPS role. If one ship is covering TAPS...

On escorts, I understand you mean, 16 high-end and 5 GP escorts will be, in R0-R2 33%, in "better than R5" 33% and else in 33%. Not sure from where you get the figure of 16 high escorts. 6 T45s plus 8 T23 ASW / 8 T26 makes 14. The two carrier groups need 6 T45s and 6 T26. The remaining 2 ...

Yes, the two carriers will always be crewed, even the one at R5 readiness. R5 is 30 days notice. It would take way longer than 30 days to re-crew a carrier. Of course some of the crew (including nippers) will be away on leave or on training courses, but must still be able to return to the carrier in...

With such an arrangement it would be saying goodbye to a continuous carrier capability. A carrier group would only be available two-thirds of the time. I understand that is the RN official current intention. Two-CV fleet means, one will be active/deployed, only two-thirds of the time. At the same t...

You can't have your cake and eat it with the fleet I have put forward you could have 2 x Carrier groups = 1 x Carrier , 2 x T-45 , 2 x T-26 plus RFA support 1 x LRG = 1 x LHA , 1 x T-45 , 1 x T-26 plus RFA support 1 x Atlantic fleet = 3 x T-26 , 1 x T 45 , 3 x T-31 , 10 x Multi mission sloops 1 x E...

The FRE role is not just escorting Russian warships through UK waters. It is a general contingency against a whole range of possible operations.

So although an OPV can be tasked to shadow foreign warships, it can't really be a FRE. (The clue is in the name, an OPV is not an escort ship.)

Tempest414 wrote:

Aethulwulf wrote:Saying that the whole of the African Mediterranean coast is in a state of war is wrong.

I said most not the whole

Even the word most is wrong. As far as I known none of the Med coastal areas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia or Egypt are experiencing conflict, or have I missed something?

Even if the B2s could get the 40mm donated to them for "free" from the T31 programme (which is not how MOD programme budgets work), you seem to be ignoring the significant costs of installation and integration. Saying that the whole of the African Mediterranean coast is in a state of war i...

Over the last few years, Echo and Enterprise have both been deployed to the Mediterranean on migrant patrol and freedom of navigation exercises in the Black Sea. They only have a 20mm main gun. Does anyone really expect any conflict at sea to be settled by gun fire exchanges between surface ships? T...

HMS Medway, or indeed any of the River class, has not yet fired their 30mm gun in anger. A 57mm main gun might be better for aesthetic or psychological impact (mostly on members of this forum), but any practical value for their roles in UK, Caribbean, Mediterranean or South Atlantic waters is close...

HMS Medway, or indeed any of the River class, has not yet fired their 30mm gun in anger. A 57mm main gun might be better for aesthetic or psychological impact (mostly on members of this forum), but any practical value for their roles in UK, Caribbean, Mediterranean or South Atlantic waters is close ...

While everyone here is busy making their last minute changes to the T31 requirements, can I point out that the T26 has a boat bay plus the multi-mission space. Thus, if the multi-mission space is used by 4 RM craft which are all off doing some maritime interdiction (for example), the T26 will still ...

The Hero 120 is more likely to be operated by RM, some of whom may also be present on a OPV.

As I understand it, the UK has 18 F35s. 3 of these are with 17 Sqn for operational test and evaluation in the US. 6 are with 207 Sqn OCU, being used to the train the trainers, training pilots for 617 Sqn and preparing to train pilots for 809 NAS. That leaves 9 with 617 Sqn. Deploying 5 of these for ...

One of the issues with trying to mix CAMM and Aster missiles on T45 is the different datalinks.

Aster has a one-way datalink for mid course corrections. CAMMs datalink is 2-way.

Although I not been able to 100% confirm, I believe the current T45 VLS silo of 6 x 8 A50 Syler cells was in fact designed with the space envelope to hold 9 x 8 Mk41 cells. On top of that, there is space forward of the current silo block for a further 16 Mk41 cells (although I have seen this reporte...

In my experience, I am always a little surprised by how much a navy's own history shapes its thinking. I guess the Danish Navy has not had as much experience/need for NGFS over the last 70 years compared to the Royal Navy. The Falklands still has a large effect on RN thinking and requirements (for g...