I would have kept Ocean as a PCRS replacement for Argus, but that is now gone. I am fine with ocean being scrapped. By 2018, she will have served the 20 years she was design to do, and has done a good job in the process. Trying to shoe horn her into another role seems like it will be an expensive a...

The Armchair Soldier wrote:DM reports BAE is extending its F-35 manufacturing facilities:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/market ... ction.html

Wow the tail section looks much bigger in that picture

Ron5 wrote:V-22 for COD and Merlin for AEW. Yup, that makes sense.

A tilt rotor would be perfect for AEW for our carrier's. Perhaps one day we might see a crows nest bolted on to one.

Also wondering, would a tilt rotor be suitable for ASW?

While I always feel the HV22 or MV22 Osprey for the Navy is a good option I just feel we really need to commit to it in order to get the most out of the investment. V-22 would be a great option, and you are correct if we did acquire them we would have to use them in all role's possible. I think our...

how about a seasreak system that can use LMM and HVM to cover both surface to air and small craft? A 30 mmG with 5 LMMs will be good for an OPV as a main armament, but frigate with CAMMs can handle ambush, so may not need it. I think LLM is possibly a little too light weight to be worth while on a ...

~UNiOnJaCk~ wrote: Or is just reveals the extent to which they are lacking the finer details in capability areas )

Like a defensive aid system

My ideal Frigate would have some VLS that *could* carry a big long range Exocet-like SSM, and to imply that it carried several of them, but in practice only 1 would be carried, and the primary SSM would be a quadpacked short-ranged light missile, to cripple gunboats and knock out the radar of large...

Border Force cutters HMC Protector & HMC Seeker to return to the UK after Mediterranean deployment: Excellent work form the ship and crew. I wonder if you will see more of these passing through Gib now their is a focus on a bigger stronger frontex. If we are staying in Europe it needs a proper ...

The SDSR says the mine hunter fleet will be cut from 15 to 12, presumably to free up resource's for the extra rivers. Trying to work out which class the cuts will come from is something of a mystery The hunts are much older but have had new sonar and new engines recently, and as mentioned above, hav...

A 3D printed drone with 30 minutes of flying time saves £7000 by not using a helicopter. If true that is a significant saving, the irony would be amazing if they went to recover the drone with a helo! Glad to see the RN continuing to put resources into schemes like this, innovating to save money an...

That's a video of the demo they did at dsei 2015, boarding a French vessel, VN Partisan. A cheap OPV kitted out for aviation, boarding and other naval training activities, rather than using an expensive asset. Perhaps something the RN could look at. The French have it under a PFI (or their version o...

The only other nations with requirements compatible with the RN, all also want to maintain their own national warship design & construction capability, so we cannot sell to them. Completly agree, Ive been saying this for a while. If we could export the T26 it will be selling the blueprints, not...

Type-26 number 8 is built, the cheapest warship is almost certainly going to be "more of the same". That is undountably true, which makes the whole situation a little perplexing to me, but that is the desision leadership have desided to go with. Once of the reasons given is to keep design...

It is true we will need an interim missile between harpoon and our new future missile.
Naval Strike Missile and Tomahawk Block 4 are both great choices because of their multiple uses, very important suff these days.

Does the T26 have at some point the ability to deploy items like rail guns and laser type weapong certainly The US navy's laser system uses its own little diesel generator, its a complete modular system with weapon, optics, cooling, power supply and controls built in. In such a system it makes litt...

its a shame, would have been a perfect study to put the nuclear/GT and STOVL/CATOBAR arguments to bed.
(incidentally I think we are on the right side of both of them)

Agree, actually. The difference here is that I see little "general security operations" requiring TLAM. I was just about to comment on Op Ellamy, but @~UNiOnJaCk~ has summed it up quite nicely. I think such a mission falls into general security operations quite nicely. I would also add th...

Type-26 has "huge" mission bay. You do not need the same one in your light frigate. I think we do. Otherwise the royal navy will have a specialist ASW ship, that is more flexable and general purpose than our dedicated general purpose ship If you need Type26, send it. If the light frigate ...

I find the mention of 'quad-packed' CAMMS interesting as that would suggest the VLS in question would have to be the Mk41, right? I found that part confusing. My thinking is that they considering quad packing CAMM into the shorter self defence Mk41, rather than the full strike length version we rea...

The venator 110 concept does look fairly nice. All diesel propusion that has compartmentalised modules is important 85 crew would look very nice to the RN if it is acheivable Nice to see replenishment at sea included, no sexy but very important I find their comments on a VLS confusing. First suggest...

The value of the drugs seized is greater than the value of the ship! Great work.

A little part of me always thinks its a shame they cant auction it off to fund more ships

I would like to add; no brimstone on armoured vehicles, wildcat or ships no Sea Venom on merlin no LLM on ships, watch keeper, reaper no storm shadow from ships Probably more I cant think of off the top of my head. At least CAMM has had a good start. This is something that has continually wound me u...

so you don't think Incheon "size" frigate would credible , too small ? I think so. For a general purpose ship, the mission bay, hanger and flight deck are critical, all of which take up a lot of space. You need large stores so the ship can be deployed long term without causing logistical ...

It has to be "cheaper" and "lighter" than T26 per the SDSR! Yet it will also be "credible" according to Admiral Z... so no stretched T45s or Incheon's. It will have to be an entirely new design too, to sustain the design skills and complex warship industry. But it prob...

Digger22 wrote:Alternatively, build a couple of Stretched Type 45 as dedicated 'Cruiser' escorts for the carriers in Peacetime.

I'm confused about how that would represent our cheaper frigate.
Why wouldn't we just finally fit the assets we have with the MK41