The gap between catobar and STO/SRVL aircraft has undeniably decreased. STO/SRVL will be much more economical for us to operate whilst still delivering a great capability, which is why it is the correct choice. It may not be quite as good as the Americans, but it will be much much cheaper. Those sav...

But on the other hand they did end up buying the LCS junker so perhaps we shouldn't grant them too much ability in good decision making. Precisely, they have given light frigates another go, just under a stupider name, and look how that tuned out. If anything is going to damage the credibility of t...

Which is part of the reason why I thought about the 40mm CTA currently being developed for a few of our armoured vehicles. Only a small step up size wise but a much larger projectile and a much greater choice of ammunitions with the benefit of commonality amongst the forces. Although a beefier and ...

With the new larger variants being pushed further into light-light-frigate role territory I have to wonder if that single 30mm up front is enough anymore. A 40mm CTA is being developed for various armed vehicles with the added benefit of a variable ammunition. A 76mm Oto would be awesome but pricey...

The beauty of STOVL operations are how simple they are. If anyone has seen launch and recovery operations of Harriers off the Invincible's I'm sure they would be impressed by how quick and easy it all was and frankly totally undramatic as compared to CATOAR ops from US Carriers. It's great. A much ...

however a flight deck would be a requirement. A flight deck and aviation facilities should be a requirement of any ship built today. These ships will be in service out to 2050 and a some point in that time frame UAV's will be common practice, not just for our large armed forces, but for small milit...

I'm not sure where they myth about diesel's being cheaper is from.
They don't take up less space, a GT is about a power dense and you can get, and the air vents will be the same size. Both use air as the workind fluid so both need roughly the same amount of air to produce the same amount of power.

Agree'd but how much money will you save/lose with redesign and spec changes? as ti cutting the mission bay size how much money does a big space filled with air cost? Incredibly difficult to say, but one thing is for sure it isn't the mission bay that will make the T26 expensive, it is the ASW equi...

and reduced spec light gp frigate worked really well last time round! A reduced spec general purpose T26 variant is very much possible without sacrificing too much credibility, as long as we are reducing the spec on the ASW equipment. The T26 will be the world best anti submarine frigate when it en...

WhitestElephant wrote:I think we need to ditch the idea of "light frigates", understanding those to be along the lines of La Fayette or Floreal. We will be building proper frigates, although non AAW or ASW specialised and "lighter" than a T26.

Hear hear

2: Kipion: Its far, so the same rotation as WIGS is not feasible. Then forward deploy a B.3 River such as HMS Clyde in FI. With small maintenance to be done, she will not be 100% operational, but nearly 70-80% will be fine. Defiantly the Caribbean, however a patrol ship patrol ship is bit right for...

Repulse wrote:If the Sandowns do not have the deck space to support USVs and UUVs, I'd keep all 8 Hunts

Likewise. They can be a much more flexible platform, as well as a bit more endurance, a much better choice. A good platform for developing unmanned MCM before transitioning to MHCP in the late 20's

Thanks for that information ,is there really the need to cut back on asw capable ships the R.N would of had many more of these ships with this capability twenty years ago hunting much noisier soviet era subs ,but now with stealthier subs fewer asw ships are to be deployed But now we have the P8 tha...

A little difficult to see from my phone camera, but it has become something of a Christmas tradition to see Santa hanging out of a Sikorsky S-92.




Happy Christmas again chaps

A little difficult to see from my phone camera, but it has become something of a Christmas tradition to see Santa hanging out of a Sikorsky S-92.

First of all, does VENATOR117 design meats your "lighter frigate" idea? If yes, that is what I meant, so there had been NOTHING to discuss (other than my independent proposal about slightly shorter range). For me the VENATOR 117 sits right on the fence of being a credible surface combatan...

Merry Christmas to you all! Hope you all enjoy the good Christmas food and drink.

Sounds like a great exercise for verifying and developing methods of using manned and unmanned assets together.

definitely sounds like a step up in the pace from the previous reports too.

http://engagingstrategy.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/21st-century-cruisers-future-of-royal.html?m=1 Just read your post. Very nice article, it fully justifies the reasoning behind properly sized surface combatants. Your summary is also very true, I do try and avoid using frigates/destroyer/corvette now, ...

The RN's doctrine says some very interesting and revealing things about coalition operations. It talks about the importance of not just bringing generic capabilities to the party, but ones that are unique or sought after. That's the path to greater influence, or even operational command of coalitio...

Good news. do we think they have finally got on top of the programme?

To be honest, in my opinion, the Royal Navy is in the process of returning to it's old (and very successful) structure after unsuccessfully flirting with the two tier concept. Forward deployed long range cruisers (now called frigates and destroyers due to ASW or AAW specialisation) and a powerful b...

One scenario is that once the carriers are operational, the T45 and T23 ASW/T26 will focus on escorting them, so a lighter frigate will replace the T23 GP (maybe with equipment transferred over) in covering all of the other missions for a which an OPV isn't good enough. In such a case, a weapon fit...

Yes, hanger only to the additional 2 OPVs was what I meant. Better to be common design, but what about cost? Because most of the OPV tasks do NOT need helicopter, I don't think modifying all 5 B.2 rivers deserves its cost. If we keep the hull essentially the same, effect of the difference around th...

With your design, I'm afraid the top weight will significantly increase and stability degraded. How about extending your ship by 5m? This will solve your stability and make the hanger fixed. Considering export, this design will be attractive, I agree. Not really possible to extend by 5m because the...