Funding required for sixteen per Type 26 x 8 + 100% war reserve X £2.2 = ~£600M, if US waives any costs for R&D ? Thats for LRASM 1. Very limited production. It's not going to be that expensive for the full specced, shipborne LRASM that comes later due to the volume involved. It's also far supe...

http://www.janes.com/article/79496/warr ... efense-crt

Well if the benefits are claimed looks like this could be a shoo in for the Warrior upgrade, particularly as the Army will have had experience, and thus confidence, of these on Viking and Bronco in actual combat.

shark bait wrote:For the RN very. The T26 is the first clean sheet frigate to be built since the Falklands

I thought the T23 was. Given the change in the design was pretty much 100% from the original proposals following experience in the Falklands.

It can be used in SEAD/DEAD, and should be good at it, but it's not an ARM by definition. Surely if you can triangulate the position of an emitter using the far superior capability of the equipment mounted on the aircraft then sending a missile that can home on command vehicles rather than the ante...

us). Wow 450mln for the Tide class? Are they built in commercial standards like the Ocean? Do you plan to do the same for the FSS? Because the 1bln looks tight for 3 ships. Just for reference ,since in your requirements you look for a bigger ship, this is what we are getting for 350€ (4 for the fre...

If four Tides cost £450m why would three FSS ships built in a similar manner cost £1bn? Enhanced aviation facilities, cargo holds cost more than tanks, magazines for weaponry, automated cargo handling equipment, Heavy RAS gear and increased berthing amongst other things. Possibly - Diligence was al...

If the RN wants to be a global force again it will need a Diligence replacement and I think a reworked Bay class would work well for this role Surely the answer for a Diligence replacement is a another cheap as chips oil rig support vessel conversion? It worked for Diligence why not use the same co...

Just as the US has Ageis ashore is there not the capacity to duplicate the T45 system but have it on land ? There is the facility on Portsdown Hill at Portsmouth which with the addition of some Sylver VLS could be made into an 'Aegis Ashore type' facility. But really if we wanted to do that it woul...

R686 wrote:hat would come down to the importance of the mission, irrespective if you had 6 or 26 boats.

True, but with a mere 7 Astutes the chances of 1 being available, from the small number we can put to sea and having time to be fitted with the Chalfont DDS are fairly slim at present.

The A26 Oceanic or even the ext version could be a great addition to the fleet. Perfect for sneaky ops in the Baltic & Gulf, ideal for protecting the north Sea & routes to the Atlantic. Allowing the Astutes to venture further out. It could be used for training the ASW community as well, you...

The Gotland replacement; now there's a boat to watch out for. If I we're in the market for an SSK, SAAB would get my full attention. Apologies if someone has posted this already, but HI Sutton has put up, as usual, an excellent write up on the A26. Didn't realise it could have 12 VLS for Tomahawk.....

hy is the ship launched version so much more than the air launched version? That doesn't make any sense. It's longer, additional booster, all the testing costs were borne by one customer (the MN) and it has a comparatively limited production run. Storm Shadow/Scalp had a production run of >2500. Ov...

I should add you could get lost for years in there

If anyone is interested in Skylon and Sabre I'd heartily recommend a trip over to the NASA Spaceflight forums. There's a about 6 concurrent threads devoted to it with thousands of posts going back years by a lot of informed posters, including some by the team at REL. https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/

RetroSicotte wrote:In reference to TLAM or SCALP?

Ship launched SCALP. The cost per missile were colossal, IIRC somewhere north of $3m per missile.

Dahedd wrote:Interesting to see the use of the naval variant by the FN. Always struck me as odd that we haven't deployed it on RN vessels as opposed to just relying on sub launched Tomahawks.

It's eye wateringly expensive. It makes sub-launched Tomahawk look cheap in comparison.

RetroSicotte wrote:300km for FMC/FCASW?

I suspect this is the Storm Shadow/Scalp range issue raising its head again.

I reckon we could build a Trident sized missile and the RAF would still claim on their website that it didn't exceed MTCR limits...

Looks like another research and development effort under the Complex Weapons banner.

http://www.janes.com/article/79083/mbda ... w-research

indeid wrote: That’s because we used such a modern and high tech weapon.

IIRC the Conqueror's skipper didn't choose the Mk.8 because of worries over Tigerfish reliability (although he may have been wise to do so). It was primarily because of the warhead size and comparatively easy shot that swung it.

Don't airbus already do a couple of MPA..C295 or a quick search came up with the A319 mpa, or was this just a idea ? would of been good if this replacement came earlier so the UK could of joined in instead of the American made P8, Blame BAE and Airbus. The A319 MPA could have been developed instead...

The Russians arn't the only targets are they. More likely to be shot at terrorists resting safely (they hope) by their camp fires in the middle of nowherestan. Perfectly happy with that, as long as we're using some of the stockpile that were being mothballed (900 bought was probably a little overbo...

ypass the controls. (I never fact checked this) The UAE's Black Shaheen. Definitely covered by MTCR. Realistically I can't understand the sensitivity around the subject. We know that we'll never know the exact range, but the Russians aren't thick...they've done the calculations, they'll know to wit...

The French built a smaller missile with 200kg less fuel, so no surprise, it doesn't fly as far. The solution is not difficult. Little difference in technology between the two. I've said it before but I just don't buy the quoted range figures for Storm Shadow/Scalp. It is as good as exactly the same...

sunstersun wrote:w much final assembly is worth. all i can say is germany got a better deal since they dropped a decent chunk of aircraft yet still kept the same workshare.

Germany actually had to come to a financial arrangement with the other partners to compensate them for this. Same with the A400.

Part of me wonders if we shouldn't retain the Rapier FSC for point defence work of fixed sites. Lovely idea but realistically some of the components will be used with Land Ceptor. You also have to wonder about the expiry date on the missiles. Plus the stockpile must be dropping with 50 missiles rec...