These two links have some of the pics I took during the CV-61/CV-64/BB-63/CGN-9 joint formation and 16″ gun-firing photo-op just south of the Aleutian Islands in November 1986, which is where that photo of New Jersey firing comes from (that was taken from the island, by someone else… all mine were from the flight deck, like the pic posted below).

KEWL! Especially like those shots of New Jersey firing over both sides. Also, missing those nice cruiser designs (although only Long Beach is of course the last rue cruiser hull since WW2).

Taiwan built 8 modified Perry class frigates, laying down the first in 10990 and commissioning the last in 2004, all with SM1 & Mk 13 launchers… so I don’t see any difficulty with Taiwan modifying them however they wish to.

They could even go to the effort of building the above-deck parts of the launchers to restore them to service (the USN left the below-decks parts in place).

Most likely, however, is for Taiwan to just buy the parts needed from the US to restore the Mk13s to service, if not just have it done in the US before taking possession of them.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/taiwan/cheng-kung.htm

Rational would be to reinstall the Mk13 launcher arm and STIR. Practically, I don’t think this will happen and I think the fit of the KNoxes will be moved (like it did from Gearings to Knoxes)

Edit: if US is willing to provide Mk13 parts, that would be preferable. Knox SM1 boxes could be used on Kang Ding then.

Your view of Long Beach (November 1, 1987)?

Maybe you also caught a glimpse of this

(USS New Jersey taken from USS Ranger, 1986 😉

Type 094 “hump” is bigger than I realized before.

Couldn’t have come as totla surprise…?

Rough indication of dimensions? Length, diameter, span?

Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship: “Big Bucks, Little Bang”

Of course the question is will the DOD do the brave thing cut its losses and drop the LCS program. When you compare the LCS to other commercial off the shelf designs for cost and capability things are frankly absurd!

Just look at the new Turkish Milgem or any of the many MEKO variants and it is clear the USN is getting the short straw! OK the Perry class was rather crude but it was relatively cheap, very capable and performed the tasks the USN needed it to!

Pick an off the shelf design using US weapon systems and get US yards to build with assistance from the design authority! Hmmmm could BAE Systems do a rush job on an Americanised Type 26?

We talked about a PF-variation on the USCG’s NSC (alphabet soup … mmm ;-). Now lets see some possible LCS variants. LMCOs multi-mission Surface Combat Ship (SCS) “is the next generation surface combatant for U.S. Allies.”

Blog: http://defpro.com/news/details/40591
Site: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/multi-mission-combatant.html
PDF: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/SCS_Bifold.pdf

Big version http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/photo/surface%20combat%20ship/MMC-150m-118m-85m.jpg

That is exactly my concern. VLS Shtil is a must if there are no other AAMs, and even that is a imperfect solution considering the MANY gun+missile CIWS solutions available domestically in Russia.

The Ak-630 choice is a mystery.
I am also curious why the ship has RBU, when all the new Russian ships have gone over to Paket. Could remove the RBU and make more space for USKS or Shtil in front of the bridge.
Also worried it won’t have A-190.

Can RPK-8 (anti-submarine rockets) be used in a similar role as UDAV-1M (anti-torpedo rockets)?

The plaque says Admiral Grigorovich.

You’re right, apologies for having been lazy and blindly copying original post caption (which may not have referred to the plaque). 😮

Q: is ‘just’ Shtil + 2x AK630 sufficient AAW capability? (compared to earlier Talwars, which got Kashtan firing units). Or might we see Palma/Palash on these units (eventually)