maybe not invincible or illustrious

so can we build successor and Astute concurrently ?

Dont think we know as yet which direction we will go . My personal view it would be motherships and robotics of some sort . The 64 million dollar question is what capabilities will we add to the mothership .l

rather than looking back at type 21 and type 23 we should be looking further back at the role of the type 81 Tribal class , a true 2nd rate general purpose frigate .
And this ship was originally intended to operate in the gulf where according to 1SL the type 31 may end up .

does this affect the construction of the 7th Astute ? Which is badly needed .

I think we have to move to a HI-LO fleet. The HI bit is relatively easy numbers not withstanding , carrier , ssn , type45 and type 26 the LO end is what needs sorting out . Type 31 at the moment could drop into either group ie a relatively HI end gp frigate or a LO end 2nd rate asw frigate or a supe...

if we decided to upgrade all warriors how many have we got that actually could be upgraded .

think queen elizabeth will be the lead Amphib carrier after and during work up , while POW will be the first to take a large load of F35,s to sea .Not really happy with the loss of amphib helo carriers and replacing them with QE and POW .

expand / upgrade either Albion or Bulwark into this role while still retaining amphib capability . This could lead to better utilisation of these ships and release some much needed RFA manpower.

Damen crossover for me guys

Scotland is totally uninvestable while there is a threat of independence hanging over our shoulders. I personally would rather invest in Barrow to allow concurrent building of successor and SSN and or SSGN . Regarding type 31 I would like to see Damen XO built at Appledore and a low build of type 26...

all ships of adequate displacement should mount camm

I saw a post on another news site that Liam Fox was keen on " REBUILDING THE ROYAL NAVY" and I have since seen ab article from Lord West arguing that the RN needs rebuilding and that the army and RAF are well down the batting order .

I think we will go the same route as the French with "motherships" for future mcm .

that could very well be the XO design , fingers crossed . i would like to see type 26 built on the clyde and type 31 built at Appledore or camel laird hopefully 8-8 . the XO logistics design could the WI guardship and maybe morph into the MCM mothership role like the WW2 Abdiel class minelayers eage...

its all cutless , avenger and venator are we forgetting the damen crossover series here ?
I dont know the costs of this set of this series of ships which could be crucial , however they tick the" general purpose" boxes for me crtainly more than the BMT and Bae offerings.

Canberra class in UK service could operate as a light carrier conducting ASW and light strike roles as well as a commando carrier . I like the term "commando carrier " better than LHD,LHA , LPD etc .

would the navy not insist that the commercial ships are built to naval standards like the batch 2 rivers , which I suppose would take away at least some of the savings

Ron do the Burkes have RN standard hull quietening and if not how usefull are they for ASW . I have heard they are starting to ship captas 4 once again.
Hull quientening is the main reason I think which degrades a 1st rate ASW frigate into a 2nd rate and is not cheap , how does the USA manage this ?

Add captas 4 capability and we have what the type 26 should have been

disposing of perfectly good River batch1 yet chartering ships for border force

I like Venator when fitted with Tass it ticks all my boxes , without well then it drops to being a patrol frigate . In fantasy world I would like it the same length as the type 23 a further 14 metres(I think ) to provide a larger CAMM silo and a larger margin for growth.

Unfortunately Russia is getting back into submarine warfare in the north atlantic and 2 is by no means enough hence my wish for large numbers of "single role" ASW frigates in home waters . Type 26 can be deployed east of suez . A basic Cutlas can be deployed into the gulf even replace the ...

key to a useful type 31 is a CAPTAS , 2 or preferably 4. Then add a gun and 24 - 32 CAMM, hanger/ mission bay and merlin sized flight deck and a usefull frigate is born. Again for me type 26 as currently designed is a cruiser, this is what a frigate should be .

What about Artisan and CAMM are not all receiving this now ?