SW1 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023, 23:27
Why do all the ships of the class or possibly future ones need to be configured the same? The current configuration doesn’t cost £4-500m.
Lets wait and see, there is another 5 years of inflation to get through.
The T31 is evolving, it’s getting more complex and expensive. As such the price will continue to rise, build schedules will slip and the crew allocation will continue to rise.
We have used much more expensive frigates for all our standing tasks for decades in the past. Dauntless is in the Caribbean for hurricane season.
Is that really sensible now that RN has shrunk to such a degree? RN has a fraction of the escort numbers it had decades ago.
How many T45’s are currently active?
Why not send a Tide, Wave or Bay or even a Point working with shore based helicopters?
It’s a way of keeping one very very expensive escort busy but there must have been a better tasking for Dauntless than patrolling the Caribbean looking for a hurricane.
Perhaps the thinking was if it breaks down over there no one will notice.
HADR is a secondary concern not a primary one.
It shouldn’t be.
HADR is massively important and done properly it’s a fantastic example of UK soft power and reach.
The dispersed assets of the LRGs and ideally a modest class of HiCap OPVs should be conducting regular and meaningful HADR across the globe.
Escorts can respond in an emergency, as can the CVFs but it’s fantastically profligate waste of meagre UK Naval resources to do so on a regular basis IMO.
The UK’s escort fleet is tiny. No longer is RN able to dispatch a Frigate or two to fill a gap somewhere. They need to be used wisely where they will be most effective until numbers return to sensible levels.