No it was the RN claiming type 26 would be a £250m pound frigate originally no one else. The government/treasury allocated a budget of around £10 billion for the frigate replacement program the RN could have order 100 rivers for that budget or 9 type 26s or anything in between. What happened was th...

topman wrote: ↑03 Jun 2023, 17:39 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... urvey-2023


Full report available here.

Do you think there will be any appreciable change. Outflows of personnel seem unsustainable at present from the outside looking in

Reported US DOD buying some of the 60 ex-Dutch Gepards from Jordan for Ukraine through an intermediary, how many of the 60 involved under the contract not mentioned. The Gepard has been reported to have been very effective in Ukraine (the Dutch version uses different radars to the German version). ...

The RN sort indicated it wanted a high end surface fleet then reacted in horror when the politicians went ok that’s all you are getting and back peddled faster than a French fleet! The fact that the RN will be spending the majority of its cash on T26s, SSNs and capabilities for the carriers proves ...

There is a lot of talk of “mass” but in no war since 91 has it been shown that mass beat’s technology in the fighting stage. There has been no serious peer on peer naval clash for many generations hence why the theory of mass is currently unpopular. I think it’s more straightforward than you sugges...

Reported US DOD buying some of the 60 ex-Dutch Gepards from Jordan for Ukraine through an intermediary, how many of the 60 involved under the contract not mentioned. The Gepard has been reported to have been very effective in Ukraine (the Dutch version uses different radars to the German version). ...

Many other smaller countries with a fraction of the defence budget we have done a much better job of balancing their national industry, budget and fielded output because they have had to spend money sensibly and with focus we continue to spend like we are awash with cash. There is definitely an ele...

Why the original decision would of cost so much was you would have had to pause the ship build for about 2 years to allow engineers to redesign significant portions of the upper blocks while at the same time paying several shipyards for having there workforce sit on there hands until the redesign wa...

From post 98 review which was my reference the defence has barely moved it has been between 2-2.5% of gdp as your graph shows. My main point is, if you are managing an organisation that has procurements stretching decades into the future and your funding is halved over 10 to 15 years it’s devastati...

It made its bed now it is lying in it. It wasn’t RN that made the bed. Between the early 1990’s and the mid 2000’s HMG virtually halved UK Defence spending despite getting entangled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. RN can not and should not be blamed for idiotic decisions by politicians. 7AB4FD78-9...

SW1 wrote:- The issue dates back to post 98 defence review and early 00s. The last couple of type 23 were coming online and ballooning out of control costs on aircraft carriers meant frigates were sacrificed to pay for them. Not to mention the horizon/type 45 shambles. Total BS ! …………. The real rea...

People still have heads in the sand wishing for more when it simply isn’t going to happen. Hey we can all "wish". Batch 2 T26 has seen a significant move down the cost curve. A 150 million cost reduction x 8 ships could potentially one more T26 added to the end of the run. It's outside th...

People still have heads in the sand wishing for more when it simply isn’t going to happen. Build schedules and future work is entirely possible within existing budgets. The problems with the type 23s was entirely avoidable, both these issues have/had the same solution namely keep building what is cu...

Would be nice if on a man truck almost a universal launcher

Sorry, but we are stuck in the past. Having a RM Brigade is absolutely pointless unless you have air superiority and ships capable to get them landed safely…..Let’s move on shall we The reason contributors can’t move on is primarily because HMG/MoD/RN/RM collectively have done such a terrible job i...

I think you’re missing the point of what the commandos would be used for. It isn’t about nation building. Not necessarily large scale expeditionary operations either though if you’re not doing large expeditionary operations why are you building an a/c carrier it’s there only use. The use of marines ...

Moved across: I don't think the government wants a global force The Integrated Review is all about making the Army a more globally deployed force so it’s difficult to agree. It is clear however that HMT is not currently prepared to pay for it. ….nor the slightest intention of paying for a large inc...

If your adding that many helicopters to these supposed LRGs it’s really just the carrier group. It depends what constitutes an LRG. If LRG(S) is formed with a Bay, Argus and two T31’s then the group has theoretical capacity of 6x Merlin and 6x Wildcat. Adding Apache and Chinook is more of a challen...

If we went with 70 Aw-149's this could mean that the 4 Merlin's and 4 Wildcats of the LRG's could be backed up by Chinooks , AW-149's and Apache's as needed The services can’t crew or support the helicopters they currently have how’s adding another 70 going to improve things? If your adding that ma...

Situation in the balkans is tense

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65725001

Poiuytrewq wrote: ↑26 May 2023, 20:27

SW1 wrote: ↑26 May 2023, 20:10 That is not what the government currently requires. It is your wish list.

What does the government currently require?

A carrier strike group and support to the nuclear deterrent.

And national SF support

Poiuytrewq wrote: ↑26 May 2023, 19:41

SW1 wrote: ↑26 May 2023, 19:37 So what is the ambition that requires more chinook or Merlin at sea??

Very simple.

Can RN operate the CSG plus LRG(N) and LRG(S) whilst maintaining the required helicopters on all available escorts concurrently?

That is not what the government currently requires. It is your wish list.

More Merlin’s make zero sense. Especially if your wanting merlin to operate in mountains or anywhere hot like the gulf and east Africa. The Puma replacement revolves around moving special forces teams in confined urban and other areas. Merlin is chinook footprint with poor lift in global locations ...

Not matter if mk41 or pods or whatever else is added at a later date the RN should order a second second batch of 5 and modify tweak or keep the original config from build and replace the variety of smaller vessels type 23 and patrol ship in the process. It needs to ensure there is training pipeline...

What we also have to remember is the Constellation class are in the same league as Type 26 both in cost and kit Think to say T26 in same league as Constellation is an exageration if you include its AAW capabilities Constellation has the larger and much more powerful and modern SPY-6(V)3 GaN radar a...