If that’s half scale, FASGW is gonna be a damn fat missile. In comparison to Sea Skua at least.

I do agree that large LST’s are now a bygone age, sort of like Battleships really. Better to throw everything in a large Sealift ship and have landing craft take them the final distance.

Depends on the force you’re trying to project into a specific theater. If it’s about mopping up coup attempts on pacific islands, 200 men with a couple vehicles, these LSTs are pretty much the only size needed.

There are a number of proposals for the BATRAL replacement:

Rolls-Royce proposal (UT-527):
http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=102955

– 1800 tons displacement
– dimensions 92.4 x 18 meters
– high automatisation, 12 men crew
– range 20.000 nm @ 16 knots (!), max speed 20 knots
– heavy helicopter platform, no hangar
– capacity for up to 320 troops, or 120 troops with 20 vehicles including some armoured
– multi-purpose with towing and firefighting capability

Proposal is for 6 ships for the Marine Nationale, to replace the BATRALs and the southern patrol cutter Albatros, possibly also a candidate for P400 replacement. Proposed introduction 2013-2018.

CNIM proposal for BATRAL replacement (MPV):
http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=108703
(well, somewhere in there)

– dimensions: 90 meters long, catamaran
– range 12.000 nm @ 12 knots, cruise speed 20 knots, max speed 25 knots
– crew: 25 men
– platform and hangar for medium helicopter and/or UAV
– capacity: up to 300 troops or those 120 men with 20 vehicles (160 lane meters / 500 m² 5-m-roof flex deck)
– beachable

The primary concerns for “Projet BIS” from the MN seems to be :
– massive range for worldwide autonomous use
– standardized troop capacity identical to BATRAL
– helicopter capability

The rest seems to be … negotiable.

Every JMSDF destroyer name I’ve looked up was used by the IJN, mostly for destroyers.

Nah, not at all. That’s only the more prominent classes, mostly all DDGs.

current DDG names previously used:
Tachikaze, Asakaze, Sawakaze, Shimakaze, Hatakaze (destroyers)
Myoko, Chokai, Ashigara (cruisers)
Kirishima, Atago, Kongo (battlecruisers)
current DD names previously used:
Hatsuyuki, Shirayuki, Asagiri, Yugiri, Amagiri, Murasame, Harusame,
Yudachi, Inazuma, Samidare, Akebono, Ariake, Ikazuchi (destroyers)
current DE names previously used:
Abukuma, Jintsu, Sendai, Chikuma, Tone (cruisers)

current DE names NOT previously used:
Ishikari, Yubetsu, Yubari, Ohyodo
current DD names NOT previously used:
Mineyuki, Sawayuki, Hamayuki, Isoyuki, Haruyuki, Hamayuki, Matsuyuki, Setoyuki, Asayuki, Shimayuki, Yamagiri, Hamagiri, Setogiri, Sawagiri, Umigiri, Kirisame

There’s also the national industry factor. TKMS can’t really produce a LHD/CVL mix out of nothing, but a pure LHD or a LHD/AOR mix isn’t that much of a problem. And buying a foreign design is pretty much outright out of the question.

Germany named its only “people” class 20 years after their death after three people who died during WW2 (Lütjens, Mölders, Rommel).

Due to the … controversy of the name choice, every single German ship since then is named geographically. States, cities, towns for ships and larger boats, rivers and mountain ranges for supply ships, animals for smaller boats. And even that still incites people, considering Germans tend to think “regional”. Along the lines of “every federal state has to have one or two ships”. Iirc there’s only state without a ship ever named after it or a feature in it (Saarland).

The ASW/GP version of MEKO A200 would already be enabled to carry ESSM, most likely with SEAPAR, typical fit would be at least two 8-cell VLS with 32 ESSM and 8 VL ASROC in that role.
Distribution of Mk41 on A200 is one 8-cell launcher in front of the superstructure, and a 32-cell block between the superstructures (8-cell block there on ASW variant, no VLS there on Valour).

The Valour class switches out the forward 8-cell Mk41 for four 8-cell Umkhonto VLS blocks in the same space, with only some of the 32 cells typically containing a launch container (usually 8 or 16).

Options stated for Meko A200 AAW were APAR/SMART-L (full suite, not a derival) or SPY-1F (not 1K).

Btw, “Hydra” is apparently also an option for future Type 214 SSKs. So there’s a possibility that a (future?) 214 customer could buy Muraena.