UK Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

I generally don't follow auxiliary vessels, but now I took a look at ...
... UK announces contenders for Fleet Solid Support ship construction
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The UK defense minister has announced the five contenders shortlisted to compete for the contract to build Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

As outlined by Stuart Andrew, a British consortium of Babcock, BAE Systems, Cammell Laird and Rolls-Royce will be pitted against Italy’s Fincantieri, Spain’s Navantia, the Japan Marine United Corporation, and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

The five companies, which were selected from eight interested firms, will now develop bids before a final decision is made regarding the winning bidder in 2020.

The Fleet Solid Support ships,
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will be procured through international competition as they are not warships, will be fitted with specialist and classified equipment at a British shipyard before entering service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary from 2026.

Shipyards across the United Kingdom will be able to bid for this work in 2022.

The FSS ships are to have a total cargo capacity of up to 7000 m3 and travel at a sustained speed of 18 knots without resupply. The platform must be capable of delivering non bulk logistic material whilst underway and making 12 knots through the water and transferring single loads of up to 5 tonnes.

The role of RFA Solid Support ships is to replenish surface warships and other auxiliaries with ammunition (ordnance, munitions and explosives), food and solid stores. As part of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the vessels will be civilian-manned and carry self-defense weapons only.
 

Timmymagic

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Suspect this is the best air to air loadout ever seen....QRA from RAF Lossiemouth this morning. 27mm Mauser, 4 x Asraam and 4 x Meteor. The only thing that will be better in the next 15 years is when Asraam gets upgraded to CSP and Meteor gets an AESA in the 2020's.

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Regarding Type 31E, if you are postulating ANY reason other than the Treasury has not provided any funding for the project, then you are wrong. They have an addiction to cutting four or five escorts every few years and now they've been told they can't cut the existing fleet so they're trying to cut new orders. It really is THAT stupid.
so, Here are the top 3 contenders for the Royal Navy’s new budget frigate
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The United Kingdom’s Ministry of the Defence unveiled Monday its top three contenders for the
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, a scaled down frigate that it wants to be able to both export and buy in numbers to eventually grow the size of the fleet.

MOD announced contract awards to BAE Systems,
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and
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UK, each worth up to £5 million to push ahead with the next phase of the competition, according to an MOD release.

The U.K. plans to build five of the frigates initially, with a topline budget of £1.25 billion for the whole program.

“This is the first frigate competition the UK has run in a generation, and today we are funding three shipbuilding teams with extremely exciting concepts to continue developing their plans,” said British defense acquisition minister Stuart Andrew in the release. “Next year we will announce the winning bidder, and one of these designs will go on to bolster our future fleet with five new ships, creating UK jobs and ensuring our Royal Navy maintains a truly global presence in an increasingly uncertain world.”

The first Type 31e warship is slated for delivery in 2023. In 2015, the British government announced plans to build a fleet of at least five light general purpose frigates under the Strategic Defence and Security Review, or SDSR.

The shortlisting comes just days after the British MoD named the contractors it was listing as contenders to build three Fleet Solid support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the service that supplies the Royal Navy with ammo, food and fuel.

The British contender is a partnership comprising BAE, Babcock, Cammell Laird and Rolls-Royce.

International bidders are Fincantieri of Italy, Navantia of Spain, Japan Marine United Corp and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine of South Korea.

A winning bidder is expected to be announced in 2020 with the first ship ready for sea in2026.

One of the main tasks of the Fleet Solid Support vessels will be to provide the RN's new aircraft carrier task groups on deployment.

The Type 31 frigates and eight new Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates are planned to replace the British Royal Navy’s Type 23 fleet by the mid-2030s.

BAE already has a contract to build the first three Type 26s. A deal for the remaining five warships is expected early in the next decade.
 

stan hyd

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Obviously I know very little about the merits of each design, but I would like to see someone other than BAE get the contract. The Arrowhead 140 looks like a fine ship and also is anyone else bored of seeing BAE putting out the same looking design out for everything. That said I wonder if BAE would stand a better chance of getting it sold abroad.

Babcock-Arrowhead-2.jpg
 
26 minutes ago
so, Here are the top 3 contenders for the Royal Navy’s new budget frigate
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let me repeat Jul 27, 2018
Tuesday at 8:23 PM
now went over the discussion below
Type 31e Frigate programme to be restarted

July 26, 2018
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yes,
158 COMMENTS
mostly fanbois still thumping their chests, truly pathetic is the part 'no no, it's 19 escorts, not 17!', but I agree with this debater:
Graham
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Another bleak day for the RN. They are not restarting this program to add funding (otherwise they could have continued as is) but to produce a warship for the original 250m pound price.
The design will have to be significantly downgraded to meet this price, so we are likely back to the unthinkable, a enhanced OPV / corvette design armed with a pop gun and a hanger (fitted for but not with a helo). Its hard to imagine that this vessel will be a credible ‘low end’ fleet escort (have the speed, range, sensors & weapons) to support a carrier group or even to escort supply ships. Another in a long line of stealth cuts.
 

stan hyd

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I personally would like more hulls in the water. I dislike seeing RFA ships or Type 45/23 doing counter narcotics or anti pirate ops, we just need flag waving hulls so the others can do the jobs they need to be doing.
 
I personally would like more hulls in the water. I dislike seeing RFA ships or Type 45/23 doing counter narcotics or anti pirate ops, we just need flag waving hulls so the others can do the jobs they need to be doing.
what you said might mean more
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costing around £150m per copy with a Merlin included

(links for nitpickers:
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)

as these could be used against threats like pirates, illegal fishing, dope pushers etc. (a helo would be very useful, I guess);

to me this shows how RIDICULOUS the RN request of a quarter of billion pounds frigate is,

EDIT I mean what £100m more buys except a bigger hull? Aug 10, 2018
LOL good to know like entry level pricing for a VLS:

"The potential sale — covering six Evolved Seasparrow tactical missiles and two Evolved Seasparrow telemetry missiles, as well as one MK 56 VLS launcher, for an estimated cost of $41 million ..."
Missiles for Mexico gets US approval
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it's time again for Apr 1, 2016
all I can say is God Save The Queen ...
 
Last edited:
inside
Why is British Army recruiting in such a bad state?
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:

"The Royal Navy has made much of its new aircraft carriers, and it and the RAF have exploited the PR value of the introduction of the F-35B fast jets. They benefit in that they are seen, rightly or wrongly, as being progressive, expanding organisations with real operational business to do."

the clause "rightly or wrongly" is great
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
@Obi Wan Russell ...a question for you.

It was my understanding that they had strengtthened the flight deck for the helo pad on the Type 23 Duke clkass to allow the Merlin to land on it, but that the hanger was too small to allow a Merlin to fit all the way insdie. Is this correct?

Or, can a Merlin actually fit into the hanger.

It looks too small too me, and I thought that the Type 23 could accomodate a Merlin in terms of landing them, refueling them, and reaming them, but could not house them in the hanger.

Is tis correct, or can a Merlin actually fit into a Type 23 Hanger?

I know the Type 45 Daring class hanger can take one all the way inside...and I believe they Type 26 is being designed to as well.

But what about the current Type 23s.

I know they can work with them, and that they can land on the flight deck, be refueled, and actually prosecute ASW work from the Type 23 but I did not think the hanger could hold one.

But I also want to be correct and figured you would know.

Thanks in advance.
 
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