I see this quiet abit from some on here saying that the budget rise of the T26 is the cause of the low numbers but please tell me does anyone really believe you can build a first rate ASW vessel in the west for £350m ?Lord Jim wrote:And during that time they have often got ship design and the capability priorities wrong. A clear example is with regards to AA capability leading up to and in the early stages of WWII. Even though they armoured ships against the airborne threat knowing they would be operating within the range of land based aircraft, all RN ship had woefully inadequate AA until much later in the war. Even the prime AA weapon, the 2pdr Pom Pom was found to be ineffective and on the case of the 8 barrelled versions massively over complicated and expensive to boot.Tempest414 wrote:It also worth noting that when we there think we know better the RN has been in the game of naval warfare for nearly 500 years and have fort and won naval battle all over the world
So yes the RN has a wealth of experience, but that doesn't mean that what they ask for is always what they should or actually need. The Global Combat Ship was a fine idea, but the budget was totally out of sync and has produced a platform that is really more than the RN needs and as a result of its increased costs has led to a reduction in the fleet.
The MoD as a whole, not just the RN needs to adjust its expectations ad aspirations to the resources it is likely to have. This is going to be the core of the ongoing SDSR. The RN is locked into the first three T-26 and the five T-31, but after that nothing is certain. There is very little likelihood the MoD is going to get any additional resources above the current level. The Equipment Programme has around £1Bn a year hole that has failed to be filled by "Efficiencies", and will have to be dealt with. Politically I doubt the Government will allow the Escort fleet to drop below nineteen, but with resources within the budget inevitably being spread thinner and thinner by the need to provide areas such as Cyber with greater resources, and "Security" coming to prominence once again, whether the funding for the remaining five T-26 is safe is far from certain.
Even if you strip away the mission bay, the 5” gun, the Mk41s and shrink the flight deck do you or anyone else really believe you’d get even a second rate ASW vessel let alone a first rate one for £350m in the west ?
If not ( which I believe is the case ) then the problem hasn’t been so much that the T26s costs rose but more the fact that some idiots in both the treasury and MOD brought the pack of lies that it could be done for £350m each so set the budget to this and then were shock that it increased.