Taking a step back, before we start ordering new ships to replace the Bays and Albions we need a very clear and well defines vision of what the future role of the Royal Marines is to be, how are they to be equipped and how will they operate. This will define what type of platforms the Royal Navy an...

I’d see it better to cut light infantry numbers It is alway easy to cut something you have no interest for from another service to pay for something you do have an interest in. The army has geriatric equipment any saving the army makes within its own budget needs to be invested in fixing its own ma...

am not really seeing how LST's are the right choice for a global navy.
jake is right to look at larger faster LCU's and amphibs with enough docks to deploy them at scale.

but more generally a battlgroup sized mobile force acting in whatever littoral environment required not useful?

One-commando task force RMs are IMHO useless and should be disbanded. Either a proper brigade-sized force with all things that go with it, or save a few pounds. How about a Cdo assault force quickly followed by an Army Brigade? How many Army Brigades are ready to do so? Are the UKs amphibious capab...

...put a mobile combined-arms battle group onto a beach. ...breadth, depth, and sustainability. I don’t think a light battlegroup has much breadth, depth, or sustainability certainly UK one both marine and army ones. but magnificently more so than a bunch commando's jumping off a speedboat into the...

If your primary aim is to deliver a brigade then it’s not going over a beech so the need for traditional landing craft is significant reduced. whatever else 3Cdo has in store as part of its transformation I think we can all agree that brigade level amphibious ops are gone. my ambition is to ensure ...

Thinking of the Box, how about 6 to 8 small(ish) LST type platforms. Bale to move in once the initial landing site is secured and then rapidly unload men, vehicles and supplies and then head back OTH? Surly designer can come up with a 21st century version of this type if platform, I mean look at ho...

The solution to both of these problems is to distribute the package, this removes the single point of failure, and creates more usable platforms for peace time roles. as long as whatever emerges from this distributed replacement for the existing LPD class retains 8x LCU's bays to be able to surge a...

Berger goes far beyond the other service chiefs in describing how existing doctrine, weapons, and operational concepts are no longer adequate for the wars of the future That is a great article, and even though it's about the USMC as I'm reading it so much is applicable to the Royal Marines too. The...

If I was the RN I would accept the T-31 into service with a 57mm, 2x 30mm RWS with or without LMM port and starboard and a Phalanx on top of the hanger, as far as a gun fit goes. there is plenty of room if funding allows additional systems to be fitted if the need arises. what's wrong with the 2x 4...

No argument with the effectiveness of the 57mm but adding both the 57mm and 40mm seems like too much of an overlap to reach a price point IMO. If the T31's are to be the primary escorts for the proposed Littoral Strike Groups, the 57mm/40mm combination really isn't good enough. Does it make more se...

Not sure where to put this, as it’s not necessarily platform related, but relevant to RN discussions. If the T31e comes with 57mm and 40mm guns that would mean we would have 8 different types of gun mounts / calibres in wide use in the RN/RFA. 1) 20mm “old” Mount (Older RFAs) 2) 20mm “new Mount (Ec...

Some questions for the better informed than I: 1. Does not lifting the Artisan and CMS from T23-GP suggest that they're going to be sold to Chile et-al as is? Or might [some] of the weapon systems and sensors be trasnferred over to FSS/LSS/hybrid-FLSS boats... 2. Does the fact that they have gone 57...

i'd be delighted if tempest gets Poland.
a serious nation with a serious budget.

I have no objection here. A140 design is very capable. My point is, T31 is NOT capable At the outset maybe, but with the recent budget increase for the MOD could an increased spec now be a possibility for the T31? In the end it will come down to whether RN wants more capable vessels or just more ve...

i hadn't appreciated until looking at these pics quite how different the bow lines are between B1 and B2.

and the international service sector where we have been quite strong taking a major hit from an inability to trade as before in the EU. The financial sector will be largely unaffected. The vast majority of banks and the other major financial organisations already have the 3000 employees that they n...

Tempest414 wrote:
I am not saying Leander is a bad ship far from it but it also has its limits with one of them being the lack of a Merlin hangar

I'm not saying a140 is a bad ship, but it is going to have bad consequences for specialised escorts and MHCP/USV's.

Minister for Defence Procurement has recently confirmed it is £250m average. As you know, GFE cost and some of the risks (maybe exchange rate etc) are now back to MOD. The latter makes so-so big difference (may be 5-10% of imported equipment/license costs). But, it is the only difference after RFI ...

"However a referendum is about the most God-awful way to implement democracy" Sure, agreed, but this one hit pretty much every criteria set out by AV Dicey on the legitimate use of referendum. An issue of constitutional importance that cuts across party politics and is thus not answerable ...

this has amused me for some time. scot-ind made some logical sense when the SNP were tartan tories, but now that they are 'decent' social-democratic types then have an odd square to circle in promoting an act that to be successful will need a stripped back and streamlined state that would make Georg...

France and Germany share... and do not seem to lose anything in the process - but we are - somehow - different? Well, the Mother of all Parliaments is being subjected to a gang rape... let's see how the party in whose name :shock: this is being carried out will come out. Will not take long, to get ...

AS we are building forward deployment stations in Bahrain and Singapore in order to establish a forward presence in these areas, would it be an idea to actually build the T-31e as a true Corvette rather than a wanabe Frigate? Can we build a decent Corvette for the budget allocated to the T-31e? I d...

jedibeeftrix , dangerous stuff posting fantasy fleets :silent: Overall though agree with the balance of your fleet, assuming that in addition we would still have the B2 Rivers (which ultimately I’d say should come onto the same platform, but maybe not all the kit as the MHPC). I do think the Leande...