RetroSicotte wrote:What an ugly (but effective sounding) duckling that thing is.

I must admit that the Italian flair for style does seem to have deserted them on this one. Effective is more important, however

Well can the T-31e deliver a useable ASW escort for the RN? Depends on what you mean by useable. If all it's features are exploited, it will be as capable, if slightly less quiet, than a T23GP. With a towed array (which it seems most of the proposals have allowed for), probably more capable (though...

Gtal wrote:Meanwhile Germany has noticed that France spends a lot on defence and has decided to use that to it's own advantage

There, fixed that for you

the minimum spec is FTR hull mounted sonar It's not a spec - it's a Request For Information, as in "here's the parameters of the project, now what can we get for the money - give us the trade-offs?" Edit What's difference between consort defence and an escort? Any ship can be an "esc...

Doesn't the RFI for the T-31e fail to mention any sonar, hull mounted or otherwise? It mentions it in a number of places It would probably be a good idea if a few people actually read the RFI. To make it easy - here's the latest link https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/syste...

Do you mean the existing Points that are in the water now or more modern commercially sourced donor hulls similar to a Point design........I think it's highly likely that when inspected, the idea of refitting the current Points will prove to be cost prohibitive Indeed, a major consideration - presu...

seaspear wrote:What happens if there is more than one submarine firing a multitude of torpedos

Hope the decoys work? I guess that's what SSTD is there for.

Do we think people are getting too overexcited what we might get and in reallity it's just going to be something very basic and not too large ?if you can believe anything about the mod it will probably underwhelm most people but probably be adequate Agree about the "overexcited" bit. Cons...

In 2016 a Chinese submarine surfaced in the middle of a U.S.N fleet near the Ronald Reagan off Okinawa providing a surprise A former colleague of mine told a similar story of doing the same to a US carrier on exercises in the Med. In their case, they did it at night and, after taking the requisite ...

Not sure of the definition of non-platform specific, could some of the additional £250 million be allocated to GFE costs (deinstallation, servicing, nominal cost of equipement)? Are the design costs (those already allocated, as well as possibke future) coming from this pot also? Good point on GFE -...

You are misinformed, the budget has not changed, it remains 1.25b for 5 ships. Nope, completely correct - the budget for the T31 project is £1.5b, of which £1.25b is the cost of the ships themselves and an additional £250m is for (so far not detailed - unless anyone has further information), "...

Not sure how it's going to land again - a few parked vehicles in the way

I count 34. There's a smaller helicopter hiding at the rear of the island

On a slightly different note, this sounds like the origin of the jibes about using car ferries as "warships" back in August last year. Seems he was serious and the result is potentially a sensible use of scarce resources. I wonder what will come out of the alleged comments about guns on tr...

I think repetition will be an essential part of the strategy: Batch2 T31, Batch2 T26 (AAW), SSS(basic, or focussed, followed by SSS special, a sea-basing variant... which may now have faded from the plans?) - stopping the policy of producing 'templates' of types of ships and going for numbers by sh...

The Managers of the T-31e programme need to make a clear decision I think the decisions have been made, probably with more detailed foreknowledge of the RN's plans, costs and budgets than we are privy to. How we got here is a matter of record and not worth discussing further. Where we go from here ...

Could mean that the remaining 5 2050's get the upgraded transducers (around £250k a set), and/ or software and processor upgrades. Or maybe 2 - 3 2087 sets @ approx £10m per set (The first batch of 2087s was £340m for development and supply of 6 sets, batch 2 was £17m for supply of 2 extra sets in 2...

A better name for these new platforms would be something along the lines of Littoral Operations Support Platforms. Yes - they do seem to be akin to the originally-planned "seabasing" versions of the SSS. primarily there to act as a mothership/ supplies transshipment point (and good for HA...

Maybe they are planning to cancel HS2. That would save a great deal of money

Poiuytrewq wrote:I think the best we can hope for is an Iver Huitfeldt/Absalon hybrid with virtually no weapons

Except for what is ported over from the T23's, of course

bobp wrote:Some CVRT were sold in 2015 to Latvia, I don't know how many or what versions.

We sold 123 vehicles in 2014, so probably delivered in 2015. Five variants including turreted versions (according to Wiki)

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/latv ... t-vehicles

Timmymagic wrote:including one glaring one that no-one seems to have thought about or mention...........we're going to be hunting USV's as well....

See my last post - our USVs will be hunting their USVs.

ArmChairCivvy wrote:How many suitable spaces for a non-VLS hot-launch missile are there below the flight deck level?

Fair point - I don't know, but I would guess that scorching the paintwork might be a minor issue compared to failing to stop an incoming ASM

With luck the MIV or Boxer will also replace many of the FV430 variants in service meaning that the almost still borne BASV programme can be put to rest. Just a thought, since we now seem to have an embarrassment of Ajax's, with the planned changes to Armoured and Strike Brigades, surely we could s...

Whatever the quantity for Package 2 or B turns out to be (and the protected ambulance is not the only version within it), this is what was said in the Parliament April last year about the timing of the decision : "Package 2 will provide the Troop Carrying Vehicles and Future Protected Battlefi...