Lord Jim wrote:I have a feeling the T-31,s will be late and cost more. I also have a feeling there is going to be some "Mission creep" with the T-31 between now and the last ship entering the water, which will also add to costs, with the T-32 being pushed down the road as a result.
There are 3 new things in T31 building.
1:
The first foreign designed escort to be built in UK. Not just the concept (like CVF), but the full detailed design was introduced from Denmark, with minimum modification (mostly simplification of sensors and weapon systems). New for UK, but many cases in the world.
2:
The first escort ever built by Babcock. Irish OPV is of Vard-7 85 and 90 designs. And, the sales point of Vard7 design is "it is basically merchant ship design", just look like a corvette/sloop. See their web.
3:
No modification to requirement is allowed from MOD/RN, after the contract. This is new. However, based on my personal experience on something complex (not warship), defining everything before actually building it requires very high skill and good experience to BOTH the ordering-side and supplier-side = RN and Babcock. I'm afraid both of them are not so much well-experienced in escort designing (RN used to be, but not now). Let's hope BMT, OMT and Thales-Netherland properly adviced them ...