Thanks a lot! Interesting info.Ron5 wrote:I've been out of town and just got back yesterday and sorting through a stack of mail to find the latest copy of Warship World.
It contains a nice article by by Richard Scott on the Type 31 and, given the publishing date of the magazine, was written soon after the contract was announced. Anyhow a couple or three points in the article caught my eye and may be of interest here:
So it is true, T31 required 480M GBP in addition to the 1.5B GBP originally prepared. Actually, I am sad here. The 480M GBP should have been used for T45 and T26. Babcock could not build the 5 frigates as placed in the brochure within 1.25B GBP, confirmed. No surprise. Even the current 2B GBP cost looks challenging.Sea Ceptor is referred to as GFX (government supplied equipment) and so its cost is not included in the 1.25 billion award to Babcocks and probably means that they are being reclaimed from decommed Type 23's. I wonder if one Type 23 will supply missiles, launchers & equipment for two Type 31's?
Guns are no surprise, Bae 57mm and two Bae 40mm which are all capable of Bofors smart 3P ammo.
Hangar can accept Wildcat or Merlin, no surprise there, but flight deck is being strengthened to take up a Chinook or CH-53.
Lastly, overall budget is 1.98 billion pounds. 1.25 billion for Babcock's and the rest for work to achieve entry into service (logs, training, initial support, spares), GFX, steady state training, and completion of capability trials.
But, the original claim was wrong (as expected) = 5 GP frigate with only 1.25B GBP. If it was stated 2B GBP from the beginning, did RN/MOD/we proceeded with the program? I guess, if it is 2B GBP, 2 more T26 and many up-arming options executed among the "10" T26 fleet, and partly on River B2, should have been there. (Or even 3 more T26s, if the learning curve and speed-up works well).
Here, I am comparing;
- 2 more T26 (and all 10 hulls up-armed)
- 3 corvette-level River B2 (a 57gun and 8 NSMs, 2x 30mm with LMM, and of course with UAV)
- supported by 2 EEZ-level-River B2 and 3 River B1,
VS
- 5 T31 (with a 57mm gun, 2 40mm gun, 12 or 24 CAMM, and a helo)
- 5 EEZ-level-River B2 and 3 EEZ River B1.
I'm not interested in up arming T31. I am more interested in up arming T45 and T26, before spending any penny on T31. (sort just a personal feeling...)dmereifield wrote:Very interesting. Thanks. Still some questions about whether it will have a hull mounted sonar or not, and if they will receive ASM later in life (perhaps the 5 interim sets might be handed down after the T23's retire). On the Floreal point, the T31 will be large enough to receive significant upgrades should the RN decide that they need to have more teeth