Pongoglo wrote:Ron5 wrote:More pictures from Tim Fish in Chile. Can't spot any differences from previous pics of previous exhibitions.
Have to admit if it came as depicted I could just about live with BAE's offering as the Type 31, although clearly ours would come with a Mk 8 gun. With most of the weapons and equipment ported over from the T23 as GFE, Artisan, Sea Ceptor, Harpoon (in the interim), S2050 sonar, BAE's own CMS-1 and the 30mm guns, it should come in quiet comfortably at <£ 250 Mil.
Umm, I do not think that much will come with £250M average. It is only
a quarter of a T26's average cost.
I bet it will be,
- Baseline: Artisan, 12 CAMM, CMS-1, a 57mm or 76mm gun (simple version = very cheap), 2x 30mm guns, a CIWS, chaff/flare launchers and a Wildcat.
- Optionally: Sea Sensor ship torpedo defense system and 8x Harpoon will be there (shown in the photo), while I doubt Mk.41 will be there in RN version (have no idea how to use it).
- Hopefully: Even not seen in the photo is hull mounted sonar.
- I do not want a 114 mm gun, which is man-power consuming, no future, and surely be costing more for maintenance in near future.
Not well equipped, I agree. But because it costs only a quarter of T26, I think it is OK. Only thing I hope is to "bias" the equipment = to make 2 or 3 of the 5 hull almost fully armed with options, while another 3 or 2 can be less armed (say, even without CAMM).
IMHO however the biggest weakness with this design is that unlike Arrowhead (either variant 120 or 140) it lacks a Merlin capable hanger, forcing us to rely totally on an already too small Wildcat pool.
Lack of Merlin capable hangar is sad but not critical because there is anyway too small Merlin pool. On the other hand, Wildcat pool is larger (if T26s are to carry Merlin), so there will be no big problem here, I guess?
A ship with a cost only
a quarter of a T26's average cost. We shall not forget this fact.
If more money came, we can add CAMM on the Mk.41 VLS location to make it 24 missiles in total, add a S2050TR hull sonar, or add a very simple hull sonar and a CAPTAS-2.