I accept what you have written but given the service lifespan of the current patrol vessels is replacing them really the top priority for Australia? Compared to the alternative of butchering Frigate programs which are also underway? If the current patrol vessels could carry on for another decade th...

The OPV's entire purpose is constabulary. Preventing illegal immigration and providing fisheries protection. That's why it wasn't a patrol boat or a Corvette. its entire armament consists of a planned 40 mm weapon but it will initially sail with a 25 mm weapon instead. All that was by design. The RA...

Eh. It's a good article but there is much that is contradictory floating around in that article and others. In one article, BAE is quoted as saying the towed array will go, but in this article, he says they are still doing ASW? Then he says it's all pretty cheap and with minimal design changes, apar...

I don't think anyone expected a 7000 ton design to have trouble. Not after Anzac. Someone probably should have checked BAE's homework, but part of me can hardly blame them when the 2018 version of me couldn't conceive it would be an issue.

The competition for the frigate was always about fitting a frigate around the Australian government requirements for CEA radars, SSMs and significant ESSMs. A requirement . If the T26 is having trouble incorporating that, then the trouble is the frigate, not the requirements. Not unreasonably in th...

Re: the earlier discussion about missile armament choices, consider the previous classes of frigates in our respective navies. T23 started out with Sea Viper (a 6nm weapon) and transitioned to CAMM in 2017. Anzac started with Sea Sparrow (10nm) but by the third vessel was fitted with ESSM (27nm+). T...

The competition for the frigate was always about fitting a frigate around the Australian government requirements for CEA radars, SSMs and significant ESSMs. A requirement . If the T26 is having trouble incorporating that, then the trouble is the frigate, not the requirements. Not unreasonably in tha...

I think it's more a matter of taking away things above the waterline so that they can add ballasting below the waterline. That's how they deal with stability issues from top weight. Honestly, it can't be the money. Because the Hunter class already exists and the batch 2 has 85% commonality, it will ...

https://twitter.com/AlexLuck9/status/1722415117735014620 This one is the Hobart class, Flight 2 that was overlooked in much of the discussions yesterday. The enormous cruiser-length Hobart Flight 3 was more an aspirational follow-on DDG proposal. The flight 2 is actually the real competition to the ...

US Navy sub boss reveals new details on AUKUS Virginia class sub sales to Australia https://breakingdefense.com/2023/11/us-navy-sub-boss-reveals-new-details-on-aukus-virginia-class-sub-sales-to-australia/ The optimal pathway for the AUKUS security pact will include sales by the US of the three init...

nah. Price won't be a problem. All other options will start from scratch (costing far more money) and still need those same VLS cells. No, if I had to guess, I would say that having all that weight for the new cells in a relatively high position on the superstructure means that they need to ballast ...

here you go: According to BAE the up-armed, Batch II Hunter, maintains 85% commonality with the existing ships that are under construction at Osborne, South Australia. The most significant difference is the removal of the Thales Sonar 2087 towed array and various other unspecified Anti-Submarine War...

new guy wrote: ↑08 Nov 2023, 07:03 what are the ASW capability impacts?

weirdly, it seems like the towed array gets dropped. Why the heck that would be, I don't know. Must be some weird displacement/stability thing. Let me see if I can find a reference for that. Read a lot of articles across this over the last day or so.

https://twitter.com/AndrewBGreene/status/1722013239465128297 BAE revealed it had been in discussions with the navy for 12 months about how it could update the Hunter class design with a "detune" of its anti-submarine warfare focus, in favour of a guided missile frigate variant. "Whils...

Found a take on BAE hunter class that I quite liked: I'm not going to lie, this seems like a pretty bad idea. The context of this is to replace the last three (of nine) Hunter-class frigates - which are being delivered in the 2040s, with the final ship being delivered in 2044. So this would be taki...

some more PR graphics of the Hunter B2 https://twitter.com/sweeneygov/status/1721779037402783910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1721779037402783910%7Ctwgr%5E16e9437b80d3ff52d4b7185b70396085ec571e18%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A...

this tweet from Tim Fish is worth a look too: https://x.com/sweeneygov/status/1721700474783691048?s=20 A new Guided Missile variant of the @Australian_Navy #Hunter-class #frigate from @BAESystemsAus with up to 96 missile cells available by replacing the modular mission payload bay with a 64-cell uni...

Some interesting proposals at this years Indo Pacific trade show (via the indispensable Twitter feed of Gregory Knowles): https://twitter.com/2805662 Navantia Hobart class evolution: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-ShQzFbUAAp1cT?format=jpg&name=large And their corvette offering: https://pbs.twimg....

https://x.com/DTRmag/status/1720015643259613508?s=20
DTR mag:
The Whiskey Project Group and Rafael have linked arms on the development of the Whiskey Bravo - Strike small combatant craft armed with Spike NLOS.

another contender:
https://x.com/2805662/status/1720162721306730908?s=20

“The [US]Defense Department is accelerating delivery of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Australia, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said” - however still big questions over ADF’s capability for immediate special forces ops and upcoming bushfire season https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stor...

One E-7A deployed to Germany (monitoring Ukraine) and two deployed to Southern California (alongside a KC-30) for some sort of major exercise off San Diego. A lot going on for the E-7 fleet and crews, and a pretty big training pipeline back home for the rest of the unit. https://x.com/militarnyi_en/...

Japan to deploy ASDF fighters to Australia on rotational basis
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15042152