Ron5 wrote: Very naive question, but given the problem with the 7.62 ammunition is size & weight, can it be made smaller & lighter? Whatever happened to caseless ammunition? I remember that being the future once. If you’re of the correct era you may also remember the mocked-up photos of fut...

The Type 31 may well be able to perform many useful tasks in peacetime and at a much cheaper price than sending a ‘full-fat’ frigate to monitor Somali pirates, chase down drug runners in the Caribbean or fly the flag for ‘Global Britain’ in Singapore and the Far-east. However in war it will have to ...

arfah wrote:
Restoration will also include a Rolls Royce Napier engine.

I’m curious about this Rolls-Royce Napier engine

I’m not sure D. Napier & Sons would like their Sabre engine being associated with their principal commercial rivals!

Ron5 wrote: He's making it up, the Zumwalts were not cancelled because of stability issues I was thinking that they certainly subjected the Zumwalt hull shape to enough testing prior to commencing build to be fairly confident of its sea keeping characteristics. It certainly looked pretty stable in ...

NickC wrote: The USN had no option but to restart Burke build after the disaster with the Zumwalt with its stability problems due to its tumblehome hull proved too expensive and was cancelled. Have you got any links regarding the news of stability problems with the Zumwalt class? I know there was a...

I was just thinking that the CGI of both carriers together only leaves 17 F-35s back in the U.K.!*

* Assuming that there is a total purchase of 48, none of the aircraft in the image are from allied nations and all the aircraft are visible with none in the hanger.

I do wish to make it clear that I am not belittling the Type 26’s offensive and defensive capabilities. Also there may be sound tactical reasoning behind splitting the CAMM silos between two separate batteries (bow and amidships) from the point of damage control. One points I’d like to make though i...

Scimitar54 wrote: Does anyone know how long it would take to replace the cheap CAMM only launch tubes with Mk41, assuming the Mk41's were available for immediate insertion? I don’t think there would be sufficient depth to replace the amidships CAMM tubes with Mk-41. I’m not sure of the exact deck p...

donald_of_tokyo wrote: In T23, "a CAMM tube with mushroom on top" is installed in SeaWolf tube. I guess T26 is carrying this CAMM tube, un-related to SeaWolf tube. Presumably the Sea Ceptor ‘mushrooms’ will be much closer together on the Type 26 in that case, as the large vacant space bet...

benny14 wrote: The Type 26 has mushrooms. Ron5 wrote: There's an article by Richard Scott in the current edition of Warship World which sheds a bit of light on this. It's a good read giving a potted history of Sea Ceptor. Anyhow, yes to save money, the Sea Ceptor launch tube was inserted at a sligh...

Caribbean wrote: Vigilant and TERN look very interesting I’ve always thought TERN would be a good addition to the Type 26s in their ‘global cruiser’ role, enhancing their ability to observe and influence events occurring inland, along with extended range 5” shells and tomahawk. TERN would also enab...

A combination of NSM and JSM would also cover all the roles currently required by the Royal Navy. I'm not quite sure how 'common' the two missiles are, although it'd probably still be cheaper than maintaining two entirely dissparate anti-ship missile families in service... three if you include the W...

I’ve always thought piggybacking on the US LRASM programme might be the best way to go for a future anti-ship missile for three reasons: • It should represent good value for money compared to a European missile due to the volume of US orders resulting in a decreased unit price. • The Americans will ...

Mortar being an APC sub-variant with a turntable and an 81mm mortar, underwhelming as that is.

This is British procurement, it was never going to be as fancy as a Boxer with a Patria AMOS or NEMO turreted mortar, nice as that would be...

What about the Scandinavian Archer system?

I’m not disputing the accuracy. But I don’t see the fair and balanced report every time a US or European sailor pees up a wall in Portsmouth in an international news feed. Perhaps it never happens, pehaps it is in fact plastered all over the New York Times and Le Monde and I’ve never noticed, perhap...

And back to a slightly less balanced view...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45463703

It would be nice if the BBC started acting a little less like a tabloid newspaper and a little more like a state-owned broadcaster again, wouldn’t it?

ViscountViktor wrote: Will the Type 26s have anti-submarine torpedos? No torpedo tubes for Stingray, but the Mk-41 will take ASROC, which would give a much greater radius of action and also an offensive alternative if the ship’s Merlin is unavailable. Of course just because it can take ASROC doesn’...

I always assumed that the ‘mushroom’ launch silos for CAMM were merely a quick fix method to adapt the existing Type 23 Seawolf VLS, a bit like the insert ExLS system allows a self-defence Mk-41 VLS to be converted easily from legacy Sea Sparrow to CAMM. This explains the low packing density on the ...

Xav wrote: Russia's Krylov Research Center Unveils Light Aircraft Carrier Design Excuse me Xavier, but I’m a little confused about this. The Navy Recognition article refers to a light aircraft carrier powered by a gas turbine/electric drive, yet neither the photographs of the display model or the a...

Still no phalanx or 30 mm DS30M mounts to be seen. I don’t suppose she’ll be facing any security threats off the US seaboard that can’t be warded off with a sternly worded radio message and/or a visible wave of a loaded GPMG so I’m not concerned. However, I’m slightly surprised that the 30 mm cannon...

I think the gist of this is that a ‘modern’ (1970s to the present) air superiority fighter can cover 90% of the role of a dedicated interceptor, a specialist role now largely supplanted in war by long range SAM systems such as Patriot, or when a non-lethal approach is preferred in peacetime by air s...

I wonder what percentage of a Type 26 could have been paid for with the expenditure to date on the Type 31e programme...

Repulse wrote: Tactical nuclear weapons are on the rise, and IMO more of a usual deterrent against conventional threats. Your argument would also be the same for the French when a Mirage fired a cruise missile or drop a bomb. Oh I’m aware of that. I just think it could turn out to be a strategy tha...

Repulse wrote: I’d spend the money on more multi-role SSNs and nuclear tipped cruise missiles... The problem with non-ballistic nuclear weapons is that the enemy is never quite sure what warhead your cruise missile has when it erupts from the sea surface and they may accidentally ‘over react’. The ...