The money saved in letting Norway buy a few of T26 B2 could be redirected to buying more F-35B's. Of course, very possible to make that trade off if the Navy owned the aircraft. Next to impossible with the RAF in the way.

We will have a smaller fleet of specialists and potiential a larger group of all rounders in the middle. No sure that’s adequate. If funding remains roughly static a more balanced approach is the likely outcome IMO. - 8x T45/T83 - 8x T26 - 8x T31/T32 The cruiser idea for makes little sense for mult...

BAE are already planning on significantly compressing build time once they move into the new shed. Incorrect. Lister is on record as saying the increased efficiency is to get the ships back on the original schedule. there may be an option to revive T32 as a T31 Batch 2 There is. All depends on how ...

History 101 So you can't tell me how so? The RN clearly wanted all 13, and there were rumours of a £11bn price tag, the Treasury said no. Yes but it was the navy who messed up the procurement as such that the price rose to that, out of the RN's budget, so if they did ask the treasury for more then ...

I thought the problem was that they couldn't be built long enough in that location due to some historically valuable buildings behind. Apologies - I'm not explaining very well. I'm not suggesting extending the original sheds (red outline), but covering the area (yellow outline) currently used for o...

new guy wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 14:08

Ron5 wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 13:59


Wrong!! It was the Treasury under Geo Osborne.

How so.

History 101

Markam wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 13:37 I live about 1.5 hours from Yokosuka but I am not so nimble until the weekend at the earliest.

Wonder when she leaves?

Swing by Donald's and give him a ride

Bit sad that a small country with a tiny navy is thinking of 5 top ASW frigates and the Royal Navy is only going to get 8.

Effectively Norway would be funding the 5x T26 that HMG refused to fund. Never thought of it that way. True! We've gone all around the houses to get back to where we should have been from day 1 with a modernised frigate factory pumping out 13 x T26s. Jeez we make life hard for ourselves Navy's faul...

Well, as soon as the "frigate factory" is complete & build moved into that, BAE could build a simple "warehouse" style shed to cover the area where the frigates are currently being assembled & the adjacent disused slipway - that should provide capacity for at least one, ...

Caribbean wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 19:43 If the current plans come to fruition, then the T31 will be an extremely potent surface combattant

Please do share. All I've heard is an aspiration to fit Mk 41 VLS of indeterminate size and contents.

but what do I know. :clap: I know a tad more after reading this: PS still think that debugging a system on a deployed warship isn't the smartest idea around. After all, that was the approach taken with the Type 45 propulsion system. Saved oodles on money not testing it out onshore first. (Buff)Hoon...

Seems the good Minister is placing most of his faith for the accelerated service date, in his new procurement rules. Specifically the rule that says immature kit should be put into service so that bugs can be ironed out in the field rather than the development lab. Sounds fukking stupid to me but wh...

A GP frigate for at least half the price or more can provide a good level of ASW with a TAS and it doesn't need to be modularised. But would your GP frigate actually catch any submarines? If the chances of that are tiny, it's wasted money. There a lots of frigates and destroyers around the world fi...

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/bae-target-dramatic-reduction-in-frigate-build-time/ We aim to reduce the build duration from the first of class being 96 months to the eighth being 60 months. More than that, we intend to compress the interval between ships from 18 months to 12 Now that’s an opportu...

serge750 wrote: ↑12 Apr 2024, 15:35 How much are the Polish T31's costing again ? ( with their better sensers & weopons ! ) every extra add-on costs more ....

About a billion each including all costs, but I think you knew that.

You forgot the £100 for them to get a Hogwarts magic wand :D It’s easy to be cynical Ron but would it be more straightforward than what USN is attempting with Constellation? • The forward 32x cell silo would take some substantial re-design. • The addition of hybrid propulsion would take some substa...

I'm afraid Rosyth does not have the capability to design a new escort. They have never done any. T31 design was bought from Denmark. T31-mod can be, but I'm afraid they do not know how to make it ASW-quiet enough. Babcock doesn’t need to design anything. A partnership with BMT could continue the de...

tomuk wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 19:49 A GP frigate for at least half the price or more can provide a good level of ASW with a TAS and it doesn't need to be modularised.

But would your GP frigate actually catch any submarines? If the chances of that are tiny, it's wasted money.

imperialman wrote: ↑09 Apr 2024, 22:01 This outsourcing is designed to ensure that the construction schedules of the Type 26 frigates are accelerated

Accelerated? To get back on schedule or to improve delivery date?

Thanks for the update George

Markam wrote: ↑09 Apr 2024, 14:02 I must have missed that, I could not for the life of me find anything on a "Merlin successor", but I suppose it is not a direct successor but more of a general new initiative.

The UK has listed Merlin as one of the types to be replaced by this program.

It is quite sad we do not seem to have a Merlin successor (or one in the works) to compete in the larger bracket. The UK does have "one in the works". It's the lead nation in the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) program designed to replace many medium helo's across Europe and ...

SW1 wrote: ↑06 Apr 2024, 16:40 That’s not a limited capability anyway you care to cut it.

Extremely limited in both endurance & effectiveness which is why the Koreans are replacing their Lynx with larger helo's.

Ian Hall wrote: ↑06 Apr 2024, 13:00 but thankfully the debate about turning them into some sort of 21st century Panzerschiff has died down of late.

Hey, nothing wrong with Panzerschiff's!!

And you can have the exactly same dipping sonar and processing system that is on merlin on wildcat now. The South Koreans bought it. Thales sell it as compact flash basically they used new materials, replaced hydraulics with electrics to reduce the weight and shrink. And a much shorter cable so no,...