If you need T31/32 up-armed to counter Russina, why not just add more T26? ... Even with CAPTAS4CI added, T31 will not play a good game against modern SSK/SSNs. Actually, this is the reason RN built T26, and Australia and Canada bought them? I would add more T26s, and maybe there is scope for a cou...

What sort of vessels are going to be operating in many of the areas the T-31 is going to be operating in? The answer, the heavily armed Corvettes that have been discussed. If the T-31 is to have any deterrence value it must be able to face down such vessels, otherwise the RN will be a bit of a laug...

The only good thing is that the RN will be able to use it when fighting its budget corner, especially for kit such as OPVs, fast boats and Scan Eagle type UAVs.

Not sure where to post this, and not sure what difference the RN can really make beyond political optics. Giving things to the military seems to be a trend at the moment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60021252

No matter what gun they have, they won’t outrange an enemy’s anti ship missile systems on land or sea. The 5in is to big to stop ships you would wish to board. So I’m not sure when you’d use it. As a general aside, it will be interesting to see how hypervelocity projectiles (HVPs) evolve this discu...

I remember reading that the review after the issues with the Astute programme recommended the optimal drumbeat of submarine production to be one every 18mths for the UK (balanced by skills, facility capacity, supply chain etc). If a nuclear reactor is designed to run 24 years without refuelling then...

"Civilian Vessels" eh? Who would have come up with that crazy idea...

what would the cost / safety be in upgrading / reactivating say Torbay and Trenchand to give us a fleet of 9 I don't think anyone outside of the MoD/BAE will know and even if they did they would not say, but given previous discussions it's a non starter as they are over 30 years old and there has b...

I've read that traditionally the planning assumption was 3.5 SSNs are needed to ensure 1 deployed SSN on a 100% sustained basis - so the current target fleet of 7 SSNs would give two: CASD/North Atlantic and CSG Escort. I guess with increased use of training simulators, lower maintenance requirement...

I do like the idea of having say 10 x 30m unmanned subs some of these along with 4 more P-8's could re-leave the type 26's from TAPS I would agree with more P-8s as armed correctly with ASMs they can do both ASW and strengthen the UK's ability to project sea control into the North Atlantic. I'm als...

Why would you be committing a Littoral response group on its own to a threat requiring area air defence? It merges with the carrier group for higher end operations or so the literature says.. It does, but it’s not an optimal solution, the same as a CVF is not a good LPH, you want the CSG to be inde...

Where is the Area Air Defence for the LRGs and Troop Transports supposed to come from? Oh, I know! Of course, it will be plucked out of the sky! We NEED more than Six T45s. Not ordering hulls 7 & 8 as the irreducible minimum, was another act of sheer folly. :mrgreen: Agree, but history is histo...

What about the North Atlantic? For me if we are talking about getting additional "subs" into service, then I would be looking at an interim step to have a purely battery/fuel cell 30m XLSAUV (eXtra Large Semi Autonomous Underwater Vessel) with offensive capability. The problem with going u...

Now if we can only generate 3 type 45's at this time we should dedicate two to QE and one POW and be asking the Danish navy to dedicate a IH class or the US a AB class . But the rule of 3 dose not and can not work with type 45 for the rule of 3 to work we would need 12 type 45's as we need to gener...

Really? Where at China and Russia? At what region, or islands? In my view we are in a new worldwide Great Game with at least three players (US, China and Russia), potentially there is also the EU though they seem content on focusing regionally on Europe (depends if a US independent foreign policy a...

The point is we have had 3 type 45's fit for deployment and the other 3 in deep maintenance or laid up in a given year meaning 50% of the fleet can go to sea as seen fit like this year when 2 were deployed with the CSG and one was deployed on local operation like missile tests and joint warrior Wha...

the rule of 3 has been out the window for sometime now for many years we have deployed 3 type 45 a year with the other 3 in maintenance or laid up i.e 50/50 It’s not deployed in a year though is it, it’s the number deployed on active service at the same time throughout the year. I’d also argue that...

SW1 wrote: ↑09 Jan 2022, 10:52 And the Merlin part of the multiple air wings comes from where?

Depends which role you are talk about, for example a plans for a replacement AEW system have already been announced.

It’s hard to “surge” 2 carriers when you have only 1 air wing and 1 solid stores ship. There isnt any robustness in any other areas of defence its all at minimums probably even less than with personal shortages. I can't argue with that logic based on the current picture, however the direction of tr...

Why should the escorts be on a rule of 3 if the carrier, it’s air wing and the support vessels are not? It's a good challenge, and one we've had before but from what I've read the rule of 3 is where we've ended up. The fact seems to be even with four RN escorts there would still probably be a requi...

It sounds like you would want 2*T45 and 2*upgraded T31 for close in defence of each CSG with 1*Astute and 1+T26 to be stealthy hunters, protecting the CSG further out? If I understand it correctly the standard escort group for a CSG deployed outside of UK waters is two AAW destroyers + two ASW frig...

Before talking about "adding SSK", or even before "adding CAPTAS-4CI to T31", I think these new ASW capabilities are more promising and flexible. Possibly, and they are exciting, but the discussions on adding ASW capabilities to the T31 is to act as active defence for the CSG, w...

Anyway, the key point is, "who is the supposed enemy?". It all depends on this issue... I don’t think that is the question anymore - either directly or indirectly it will be either Russia or China. There could be another Sierra Leone type operation but that would be manageable with airbor...

For this to work there would need to be a complete blackout on the ships they would have to operate out of non naval bases be maintained out side normal naval contracts and be changed every 2 years and even then Russia and China will know about them and will others know Not if they are kept to look...

Liked the first two third but the final point would worry me, hoping that the MRSS would blend into commercial traffic. What I’m proposing is that there is no MRSS, it’s a complete change of thinking. We retain a dedicated force consisting of the three Bays and a replacement Argus (as an AAC Aviati...