APT(N) and APT(S) have not been a priority requiring frigates for a decade or more.SW1 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2024, 09:10 These don’t fill a spot on the wallchart.
There reason is to support the Arabian Sea deployment, the nato standing naval task groups in the Mediterranean and the North Sea/ Baltic regions.
The Atlantic patrol task north and south and the fleet ready escort around the UK.
These are all on our principal sea lines of communication and sources of energy and mineral commerce.
The deployment of a worked up escort to these locations allows for contingency in response maritime security issues in relation to that trade. That is what type 31 is for what type 23 general purpose vessels were for and one of the principle reasons for being of the navy since it was invented.
Kipion is relevant but only as long as it’s seen as a priority.
The Red Sea / Houthi incident is new and has been addressed with a T45 or now a ASW T23 (though the former is more appropriate).
NATO standing groups have had a variety of assets assign to them temporarily over the years - given that there are already plenty of frigates / corvettes available then the UK should aspire to not to just add more of the same.
Unless the T31s are UK based then they will drain crew from other ships impacting directly what you are saying we need to do. If they are UK based they cannot replace 3 of the B2 Rivers.
Whichever way you want to position it there is no need or priority for more T31s, and it’s debatable if we should have those already on order.
