Thanks for linking this movie.NickC wrote:"T26 very, very complex, necessarily so for high end ASW, densely engineered, very, very expensive but wasn't something that could be afforded and sustained to deliver for the long term. The decision to cut buy from 13 to 8 was based on genuine operational analysis not cost and that the requirement for was for 8 not 13 and no reason to pay £1 billion for GP frigates."
My take on his thinking is that after the eight T26s that will be it, ship too expensive to build in long term, not unexpected, so won't be the basis of a future T83 (on the T83 made the enigmatic comment " Type 83 will not look anything like a T45" which i don't understand, no idea of his thinking, what is an alternative to current type of AAW destroyer ship design eg T45/Burke/Type 055, maybe thinking of USVs which seem improbable?)
To replace the "5 T23-GP's role", they selected T31 from operational point of view, as they say. In other words, RN judged that "a GP frigate do not need ASW, nor ASM, nor NGFS". Interesting. It is meaning that, T23GP was actually soooo low-level of military tasks, so that T31 as is now (with limited armaments) is appropriate. If so, using a full-fat 1st-tier escort on such tasks is a huge waste of money. Better buy more F35B, P-8A, or P-7 with it.
But, in short, it was clearly defined by the cost. I understand he clearly stated so. I understand the original "T26GP" idea was to up-arm them in short (say, 1-2 years) notice to increase the number of ASW assets when the "weather gets bad". Cost did not allowed RN to afford that risk hedge.
I understand your point, but you are talking about the "change" in the international conditions, not on the 2016 decision for introducing 5 T31.The other comment that surprised me was the cut from 13 to 8 T26s was justified by the assessment of the "genuine (ASW)operational needs" and not the massive overspend, the threat from the new gen quiet subs is increasing year by year so can only think the RN ASW operational need very, very limited?
But, it also means the decision can also change in a few years.
Admiral also stated that the future escorts will be more relying on autonomous systems. Here comes the T32 concept. If so, I pretty much hope BAES starts its designing for T32. I wanna see how their design team will figure it out.