When we can't afford to keep our frigates at sea there is no room for the batch 1's. Not necessarily. - if it is man power, River B1 (45) is a quarter of an escort (180), small but I agree not negligible. But, OPV can provide 70% more (300 vs 180 days) sea-going days with that crew. (7 times effici...

http://www.janes.com/article/70754/lockheed-martin-canada-confirmed-for-chilean-type-23-upgrade Chilian navy's 3 T23 will get upgrade by Lockheed Martin Canada, similar to those of RNZN Anzac class frigate, with CAMM. - BAE not getting the contract is not so good news for UK (but not surprise). LMC ...

1. the vessel was before the Bays were in service and the MoD were already chartering 2x RoRo ferries run by the RFA to support the op Sea Crusader was one. The vessels were being used as supply ships which is what they were built as giving a secure and controlled store apart from putting reefer co...

the T23 needs the upgrade to remain viable until t26 My proposal do not violate your point, as you know. The problem is there are only 8 T26 to come, while there are 13 T23. One good option here I (and others) propose is to increase the number of T26, not going for T31, while accepting the total nu...

sorry but the SSS will also have to support amphibious operations, MCM operations etc etc. They may even have to be used tied up along side in a foreign port to support a land force like they were in Bosnia. The CVF is only PART of Royal Fleet Auxillary operations same as its only Part of Royal Nav...

RichardIC wrote:I just want a stores ship to support the carriers. We always make things more complicated than they need to be, costs rockets and then we get some half-arsed compromise years late and in smaller numbers than needed.
Just design a bloody stores ship to support the carriers.

Completely agree.

I always enjoy reading your suggestions Donald, but, I question if it is possible to now produce up-armed River B2s as you suggest in several posts. The first three are well under way, and steel was recently cut for the fourth (may be even fifth, too). Surely it is too late for this approach? Thank...

1: Guardship can be OPV, sloop, or frigate/destroyer. It all depends against what they need to "guard". For me, "RFA in the Summer and an OPV in the Winter" as WIGS has no problem. Also an OPV as a FIGS is no problem. 2: On the other hand, the "presence ship" concept is...

# If there is a need for low-end vessels in number, we shall not disband 4 River B1s. In other words, we shall decide NOW. If RN shall shift to a combination of Task-Forces (2 CV and 1 ARG) and several "Global presence ships" as heavy OPVs (ref. Repulse-san), here is my plan. 1: Disband 2 ...

1: For MCH/T31 or "flag showing" tasks. For "flag showing" task, I think a ship with, "57 or 76mm gun, 12 (or 24) CAMM with single data-link, Wildcat for OTH attack (20LMMs or 2 SeaVenoms)" is good. Then, how much it will cost? The ship is EXACTY Khareef, which was 133M...

The trouble to logistically organise and support that many platforms to launch being in the same area at the same time. China has hundreds of cruise missiles with very long range. Even Japan has systems made of 96+96 (for reload) ASMs with more than 500km range. The trouble to have them trained wel...

It is however important to note that saturation attacks are in the nth degree of unlikely. Organising, networking, locating, planning and then executing such an attack is a level of complexity that is too great to put in words; and often "top trumped" by online chatter that doesn't accoun...

I thought T45 can track ballistic missiles, much faster than Mach 6. What is the reason to improve its range?

Yes. If it is not saturation attack, you do not need T45. CAMM equipped frigate can handle it.

Well-dock is very "heavy" equipment, and even if it is empty, you cannot carry any aircrafts, fuel, bombs there. So, anyway there will be huge "dead weight" when you are using LHD for either a strike carrier or helicopter carrier. Not much different from asking Archer class patro...

Carriers should have 2 T45 or equivalent next to it when doing anything particularly tasty. If we're adding stuff to the carriers it needs to be non kinetic systems, because if the threat has already beat the destroyer there's little chance CAMM on the carrier will be any more effective. Better to ...

An aircraft carrier and a LHD are different ships. As different as a RoRo ship and Cruise Ships. From there shape, it is apparent. - Aircraft carrier has a large flight deck, to handle airplanes easily. The deck is a huge top weight, but aircraft handling is such a high priority there. - LHD cannot ...

1: I agree T26 shall go on. Helicopter is nice, but "availability" of any helicopter is quite low (I am not surprized if we need 10 Merlin to keep 1 flying 24/7/365, of course including long maitenance in base). Thus, a frigate (acailability of ~33%) and Merlin both are needed. 2: On T31, ...

If your going for the option of cutting T26 to 6 then at least 2 of the T31s will need to ASW capable as the RN have stated that if ASW drop below 8 hull it will be unsustainable. Yes, that is exactly what I proposed. At least 2 of the T31 shall be ASW capable. I also think the idea of 6, 6, 6 and ...

Would the design really cost that much considering it is a quite mature design ? There is no "production-level" design for Venator 110. As an engineer, I know "concept design" and "production-level" design is completely different, and the latter is very costy. Venator ...

1: If there is zero resource left for T31, re-using (by up-arming) River B2 as a Patrol Frigate / Long-Range Corvette (or Sloop) shall be considered, as Repulse-san says. In this case, 6 T45 and 8 T26, supported with 5 River B2 Patrol Corvette and 4 River B1 OPV will be the best fleet I can assume. ...

In reference to azimuth thrusters at bow ,I have read they add to hull noise flow Opening required for retractable azimuth thruster is not large compared to, say, 6-12 front doors of Sub's tube and many retractables on top of their sail. So, it is just a matter of how you design it. Anyway, noise g...

I was thinking of 2 issues related to "save" T31 program. Are the following 2 issues worth discussion? 1: How about de-scoping Dreadnote SSBN ? They are big resource drain. I propose to descope it now. - reduce tube number from 12 to 8. - reduce torpedo reload, to (almost) zero. Only 5-6 t...

Thanks now I understand your concern. Navy needs to fight against "other" budget. I think this is what you meant, I suppose.

So maybe propose for 5 Spartan, and after the resource is allocated, descope them (for risk reduction) to be Cutlass

# Actually, I am (partly) serious.

The problem I see with it is there is not stated budget. They've asked for designs and said they'll be 5 maybe more in the future with out giving a clear budget. What I can see happening is the treasury say you bring us the design and well say if we can afford them at the time or not. So going in w...