Re recent discussion of the T31 and whether to class it as general purpose frigate or in my view an OPV, found the following for reference, though do not think it will change any views, it's a question of nuances, important ones, below opposing views expressed. House of Commons Defence Committee Res...

The Helge Ingstad may be a constructive total loss (CTL) as beyond economical repair. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported the situation has gone from bad to worse and only skilled and heroic actions by local tugboats prevented the frigate from capsizing and sinking.  Videos shows the tugs p...

The Navarantia built HNoMS Helge Ingstad, F313, AAW frigate collided with the Malta-flagged oil tanker Sola TS near the Norwegian Equinor Sture oil terminal, Helge Ingstad ~5300 tons, SolaTS ~ 62,000t The frigate was conducting navigation training with other elements of Standing NATO Maritime Group ...

Ron5 wrote:
Utter bollox // Utter bollex // Utter bollex // You are a troll.

Are you OK, at times you come across in need of help, may be need to book yourself onto an anger management course to keep the blood pressure down.

NickC wrote: with no budget to fund any missiles to install in VLS cells or any USV/UUV which now and in future look blue sky in the large mission bay Caribbean wrote: Any proof to back that up? No mention of any funding for the above kit in MoD 10 year The Defence Equipment Plan 2018, am i mistaken...

back to my mantra the T26 is too costly and class should be terminated after the first three ships. Ok, so if T26 at 700-800 mil. is too expensive and T31 at 250 mil. is too cheap (not capable enough), what could we get for say 500 mil. pounds? What capabilities? We revert to the original plan whic...

Damen 6,000t 'Omega' Frigate FWIW its early days but if Belgium/Dutch hold their budget we see the following. At the NATO June 7-8 meeting of NATO the Belgian and Dutch defense ministers signed two MoUs ratifying their plan to jointly procure 16 warships. The 16 warships consist of 4 frigates 12 min...

In fact, the 40% cheaper Leander delivers a global capable warship with greatly superior self-defence capabilities that can operate a larger helo in a wider range of sea states when compared with the Mexican ship. Now that you have revealed the BAE Leander is 40% cheaper than the Damen 10514 so tha...

China is currently holding their biennial "Farnborough", the Zhuhai Air show, one item of interest is a new SSM CM-401 missile, max range ~280 km, can be deck launched from ship or truck mounted for land launch. China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) states it has a termi...

It is a SIGMA 10514 PKR light frigate for Indonesian navy. See https://products.damen.com/en/ranges/sigma-frigate-and-corvette/sigma-frigate-10514 And, Romanian Navy is reported to buying 4 of them with 1.6B Euro. Not much different from 1.25B GBP for T31e. Sigma 10514 is smaller than Leander, has ...

US has approved sale of the Lockheed PAC-3 MSE Mach 5+ missile for short range defence against BMs and hypersonic missiles, range ~ 35 km, Mach 1 & 2 a/c and missiles ~ 70/80 km ? (Sweden recently purchased Patriot system including 200 PAC-3 MSE missiles) PAC-MSE to be used with the Medium Exten...

Lord West, former First Sea Lord, speaking in June said more urgency is needed in securing the work for the next five City-class warships, If there isn’t a ‘steady drum beat’ of orders for UK shipyards, the Labour peer warned overall costs could soar, with delays blighting the project. Do not disagr...

Still waiting on the FREMM and FTI to achieve a 24x hull export success :thumbup: Don't speak too soon, the Fincantieri FREMM one of the 5 picks for the USN FFG(X) Conceptual Design Phase, a big IF, but if Fincantieri win contract for 20 and now USN planning for for additional follow on of 30 ships.

The T26 is the T22/T23 replacement - the T31 is more of a T21 "replacement", only this time with no aluminium and with a state-of-the-art AAW system. The T31 is definitely not a state of the art AAW system, it might have Sea Ceptor, but it does not have a high definition X-band GaN radar ...

Your "interpretation" is incorrect. You may be right, it could be that for an apples to apples comparison the design costs are included in the Japanese 6,000t 30FFM cost at ~£400M and if so cost the T26 on same basis looking at £1,400M per ship, RN paying ~ £1B premium for first 3 ships, ...

My reading of the 5th Nov MOD Defence Equipment Plan 2018 Fig. 22 quotes current T26 cost to completion as £4,242M for the three ships, with first current in service date Oct 2027. If exclude the 'Assessment and Demonstration Phase' BAE contracts of ~ £1.5B would give build cost of ~ £900 million ea...

Re: Current & Future Escorts - General Discussion Unread postby Lord Jim » 05 Nov 2018, 16:19 As it is few nations have "Quiet" SSNs and although some conventional submarines are well suited to "Blue water" operations, their strength lies in coastal/littoral operations. Ther...

Re: Current & Future Escorts - General Discussion Unread postby ArmChairCivvy » 04 Nov 2018, 18:55 NickC wrote: no UV on horizon has that capability to deploy/operate a CAPTAS 4, need a low cost T31 or if not available will be left to the T26 to use its CAPTAS 4 and making it a noisy fat target...

Re: Current & Future Escorts - General Discussion Unread postby ArmChairCivvy » 04 Nov 2018, 18:55 NickC wrote: no UV on horizon has that capability to deploy/operate a CAPTAS 4, need a low cost T31 or if not available will be left to the T26 to use its CAPTAS 4 and making it a noisy fat target...

My understanding is that with the new generation of extremely quiet submarines you need a very powerful active sonar, TAS no longer effective, so left with a very expensive and limited number of T26s at ~£1B as sitting targets when using active VDS with close to 150 people on board. I’ve no doubt t...

Re: Current & Future Escorts - General Discussion Unread postby Repulse » 04 Nov 2018, 09:07 Lord Jim wrote: So are we now proposing an Active/Passive partnership between the T-31e and the T-26 respectively? Having the T-31e as sort of beater pinging away with active sonar whilst the very quiet...

The October Belgium buy of F-35As said to cost $6.53B for 34 F-35As, 38 Pratt & Whitney F-135 engines, and other equipment, training, logistics, and support, which equates to $192M per a/c. F-35B said to be ~ 30% more expensive than the F-35A so would expect if budgeting for future UK buy ~ £190...

30th October FTI update from French Defence Ministry. The lead ship of this class has been ordered, and should be delivered before 2023.The French Defense White Paper stipulated 15 frigates operational by 2030. 4,500t; 120 m; crew 120, able to accommodate 150; 2 RHIBs; NH-90 NFH helicopter and a dro...

Four stealth J-20s practising for upcoming for their 'Farnborough' Zhuhai show.

Think BAE Inc taken a license from Leonardo for the Vulcano 155mm shell as a possibility to replace the Lockheed Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) shell used in the BAE Advanced Gun System fitted to the three USN Zumwalt NGFS destroyers, LRLAP which did not meet spec and costing ~$1M for eac...