I suspect a lot of Airbus jobs will go to France, Spain and Germany. Since Stevenage is 12 miles from where I live and my nephew starts an apprenticeship at Airbus in September that’s not great on a personal level.

Yes I understand that. I am saying is if the sonar’s from the Hunt & Sandown classes will fit and work on a 90m hull then we should move on and build 12 more MHPC on that hull which in the long term could bring down logistics costs. dose anyone think a 2093 sonar could be deployed off a standard 90m OPV with a little work?

I know what you are saying and I agree that’s what should be done, but in reality the MHPC will be that far off in the future that I doubt the MOD will have given it that much consideration.

I wasn’t aware of that… It’s kind of staggering that with all the time that they have been planning for the T26, that the design can still not be ready for ordering.

Do you have any idea what the projected in service date is for the first of class is now?

I agree, and no not a clue when in serv ice dates are expected, I don’t think they have been released yet.

Arguments I’ve seen are that –
T26 has expensive propulsion, which could be replaced by something cheaper.
Although ‘air is free & steel is cheap’, a bigger hull needs more power to drive it, more maintenance, more internal fittings, etc., all of which cost money. Not as much as weapons or electronics, but still real money, so a smaller hull is cheaper, both to build & operate.
The T26 hull incorporates relatively (for a hull) expensive features to make it a good ASW ship, & a GP ship could put up with compromises which’d save a worthwhile amount.
Any comments on the above?

I’ve seen suggestions which terrify me, e.g. that a new ‘light frigate’ could be based on the River Batch 2, stretched a bit. I’ve seen it posted elsewhere that the Anzacs & Lafayettes have more equipment than our GP frigates would need, & something smaller would do perfectly well, with a 57mm gun, a hangar just big enough for a Wildcat, & maybe 16 CAMM. Oh, & commonality with the 127mm gun on the T26 is wrong because it gets in the way of having a really small hull. I’m afraid that such talk may reach the ears of some British politicians & convince them.

I think I could live with something the size of the PPA, though.

You’ve been reading Johnc/1805s musings on warships1 too! I’ve just pointed out all the things the Batch 2 Rivers don’t have on them to him, with the rather reasonable (or so I thought) suggestion that you couldn’t get a decent GP Frigate for less than 3,000t these days. He came back suggesting that something the displacement of the BAM should be possible – 2,700t, at least he’s consistent I suppose……..

It could be a simple cost analysis. Why go to the complexity and expense of laser/TV guidance if you can achieve the desired effect with cheaper ordinance?

Could also be the case they are using older stocks of munitions that are almost time expired as well.

Always a daft concept, built on a T45 hull it was always going to be way to small, the flying wing would of had to have been tiny with no useful payload.

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Here’s the five Helo version. I’ll be honest and say that either version looks bonkers.