If the UK is serious about getting combat capable/proven wheeled vehicles the South African Rooikat and the G6 would surely be wortn considering? Or am I being biased towards vehicles that came from someone actually fighting a war?

"Joint and several" is the legal term that the purchaser can sue any of the JV members for the full damages allowed in the contract for non-performance. On big contracts it normally scares the smaller JV membrrs to death!

G6-52 goes out to 73km!

If the RN wants to get more use from the B2s why do they not bolt the Army's CAMM version on to it. It could link to the current combat system and give them another medium range (25km) air defence node? In the context of even a Falklands 2 type scenario it would be of great value.

As there may be a move to a wheeled bias in the UK armoured forces why not consider the updated G7 Rhino from Denel (South Africa). It was the earliest RAP family giving very long ranges?

If you look at the T26 you see what may be seen as a very practical solution. A batch of very cheap Sea Ceptor silos to cover the basic need for AAW under the most mild conditions and the Mk41 to give the flexiblity of chosing the mission balance. For example if the mission was close escort of the C...

With the revised architecture of the IEP, how will it impact the potential range, endurance and optimum cruise speed of the T45s?

I would love to see more discussion of heavy weight torpedoes on surface ships. After WW2 the plan in RN was to have HWT fitted to the Type 12s, but the performance of the Mk20S was so pathetic that it was quickly dropped. Now with the first decent UK HWT (Spearfish) I believe it could be a game cha...

Ron5 wrote:That had better not be real wood on a warship.

I suspect that the last large scale wood used on a major RN was the wooden upperdeck (2 deck IIRC, level of the B turret) on the County class DLGs (Devonshire etc) in the 1960s-1980s.

Just came across this thread. What caught my eye was that I was serving on (the real County Class) HMS Devonshire in 1972 when we came from the Beira patrol to Singapore, past Vietnam (then at war) and to act as the guardship at Hong Kong. We then went south to Subic Bay and stopped at Bali. Then Au...

If one uses the Falklands as a reference (the last serious hot war the RN fought) then any platform carrying CAMM and a good radar set plus a decent helicopter would be seen as of value?

Lord Jim wrote:Yes, the sonar suites and CMS of the latest generation of top end SSKs matches most current SSNs, though may be the Veirginias and Astute still retain a certain advantage.

Given the sheer size of the flank arrays on the Astutes I do not think they would fit on a medium sized SSK.

There could be a logic for the Sea Ceptor installations in that there is a "simple" 6 missile block (2 for T31e and 4 for T26) giving your permenant fit, and the quad packing option in the Mk41s to give the mision flexibility, eg mix of TLAM, ASROC etc and/or "extra" Sea Ceptors?.

On an unrelated note, a little upthread lies a debate about the various merits of ASROC, ship-launched lightweight torpedoes and a reliance on helicopter-launched weapons. Given the general consensus that lightweight torpedoes are marginally effective (ie, better than nothing, but not ideal), I won...

If one had kept the Bucc would it have been fitted with JP233? One pass with two of those on the inner pylons would close the runway for a long time!

No idea why the Japs were different. My understanding is that they planned to operate pairs of carriers, one with a port island and the other with a starbord island. The carriers would steam together with one having its "circuit" being clockwise and one anti-clockwise. That way the two ca...

To meet the maximum possible war surge for the two CVF the RN (FAA) would need 2x36 plus 12 to cover those in maintenance. That is 84?

marktigger wrote:are the type 45's sound suppressed?

That should not be too much of an issue with a TA. If there was a T26 and a T45 in escort the T45 would be detected by the T26 TA anyway?

In terms of escort capability for the carriers (and amphibious task group?) could we not fit a towed array (CAPSTA?) to the T45s. I am afraid my active knowledge of sonar sets stops at the Type 184 on Leanders and 2007/2026 on SSNs but given the the T45 is very large why not add a supposed "bol...

Given that the new ASRAAMs are from the same production line as the Sea Ceptor, could there not be a variant of ASRAAM as RF and a variant of Sea Captor as IR to have a mixed capability? The USSR did that with AAMs in the past to make the overall envelope and options larger.

The Tomahawk has a very large warhead (1000lbs IIRC) but the issue would be the cost of a torpedo tube launched version and its (apparently) vulnerability to detection and interception?

Given that the Sea Ceptor has a surface mode (according to MBDA) and is cold launched, would not two quad packs each side of the funnel be a simple and effective installation?

I know this may be laughed out of court but could the Army's Watchkepper drone be launched and recovered? The Army apparently has too many of them and they would provide a good reconnaissance vehicle for very little cost. Given the length of the landing and take-off strip, along with the ski-ramp an...

What about the CBA40mm turret from the UK Ajax armoured vehicle. It is already in production and stabilized (albeit for cross country use!)

In terms of arming the Rivers why not put on the Army's Ajax turret with the CTA 40mm auto cannon. They are building some 250 for the Ajax program and (I think) a similar number to re-equip the Warriors. It is therefore very well supported in the UK MoD supply chain and is a very modern gun.