UK Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Jeff Head said:

Of those shown, my vote would go for number 3.

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Jura said:

#1 so called Cutlass

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1. the vendor is
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   which for the Government means PORK;
2. it's more than just a concept, I mean this:
   

   Jura said:

   ... the OPVs for Oman:
   

   

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   could be scaled up, while
3. #2, #3 are just inside brochures:

Jura said:

#2 so called Venator

#3 so called Spartan

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Royal Navy ships will lose anti-ship missile capability in 2018 when the Harpoon missile is withdrawn with a replacement not due until ‘around 2030’.

We reported today, incorrectly, that the new frigates would more than likely have anti-ship weapons ordered to fill this gap before they enter service. We were mistaken and have since amended earlier articles to reflect what is written in this article.

While the Royal Navy will still have an anti-ship capability via the submarine fleet and embarked helicopters, this will still be a significant capability gap and even then, no Royal Navy helicopters will have anti-ship missile capabilities until 2020.

As we

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, Harriett Baldwin and her French counterpart signed an agreement to explore future long range weapons for the Royal and French Navies and Air Forces with the aim of replacing the Harpoon anti-ship missile and the Storm Shadow cruise missile as well as an array of French weapon types.

French arms procurement chief Collet-Billon said last year at the meeting:

“We are launching today a major new phase in our bilateral cooperation, by planning together a generation of missiles, successor to the Harpoon, SCALP and Storm Shadow.

The FC/ASW (future cruise/anti-ship weapon) programme’s aim is to have by around 2030 a new generation of missiles.”

The missiles however will not be ready to replace Harpoon until 2030, leaving the Type 26 Frigates without any real means to engage surface warships aside from their helicopters.

The Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon programme will look at options to replace and improve existing Naval and Air Force weapons systems in the next decade. Lasting up to three years, the assessment phase will help to define the missile designs and reduce risks to inform decisions about the next stage of the programme.

Harriett Baldwin had indicated earlier in the year that options for replacing the Harpoon anti-ship missile are ‘being considered’.

“The Harpoon system currently carried by the Royal Navy will reach its out of service date in 2018.

As part of a process of continuously reviewing the capabilities required to deliver their tasking, the Royal Navy is working alongside other areas of the Ministry of Defence to consider options for a Harpoon replacement.”

According to the Telegraph, Rear-Admiral Chris Parry said about the issue:

“It’s a significant capability gap and the Government is being irresponsible. It just shows that our warships are for the shop window and not for fighting.”

Former First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead said:

“This is just another example of where the lack of money is squeezing and making the nation less safe.We will have this gap of several years without missiles. Well, that’s fine if you don’t have to fight anybody in the meantime.”

Additionally, with Sea Skua now retired, Royal Navy helicopters will have no anti-ship missiles until the Sea Venom and Martlet missiles enter service in 2020.

Wildcat will receive the heavy anti-ship missile Sea Venom and the smaller Martlet to be used against small boats.

Martlet, formerly FASGW (Light), was due to enter service around 2015 on the Fleet Air Arm’s new Lynx Wildcat maritime helicopters, it still hasn’t. However the Ministry of Defence has placed an initial order for 1,000 missiles.

Sea Venom, formerly FASGW (Heavy), is a bigger anti-ship missile designed for larger targets.

In 2014, the Royal Navy awarded Thales Group a £48 million contract to deliver Martlet and later that year a contract was awarded to MBDA for the Sea Venom missile for use against vessels and land targets, replacing the Sea Skua.

Both missiles are to be integrated by Leonardo (then AugustaWestland) in a single £90m programme by 2018, with initial operating capability for both planned for October 2020.

Wildcat is, according to the manufacturer, able to operate up to 20 Martlet missiles or 4 Sea Venom missiles to disable or destroy vessels up to 1000 tonnes.

As for Merlin, the helicopter has two hardpoints to carry four Sting Ray torpedoes or depth charges. Some customers of the aircraft have chosen to deploy anti-ship missiles. Indeed in 2011, the Royal Navy was considering equipping their Merlin fleet with an anti-surface missile. This was reportedly dropped due to cost.

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Jura said:

...

anyway I think the primary anti-shipping asset is an over-the-horizon AShM ... I must be wrong according to the present Admiralty (LOL)

...

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Jura said:

all I can say is God Save The Queen ...

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jura said:

British frigate fleet to lack anti-ship missiles until ‘around 2030’

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Jura said:

I've heard the decision about Type 31 Frigate is coming ...

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Initial details on how Britain plans to build the first batch of new Type 31e general purpose frigates for the Royal Navy will be unveiled as the centerpiece of a national shipbuilding strategy scheduled to be released by the government on Sept. 6.


Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will outline to Parliament on Wednesday a strategy that could see the frigate block built by several yards around Britain ahead of being assembled at a yet-to-be-determined facility.

At present, Royal Navy destroyers, frigates and offshore patrol vessels are built by BAE Systems at two yards in Glasgow, Scotland.


“This new approach will lead to more cutting-edge ships for the growing Royal Navy that will be designed to maximise exports and be attractive to navies around the world. Backed up by a commitment to spend billions [of pounds] on new ships, our plan will help boost jobs, skills, and growth in shipyards and the supply chain across the UK,” Fallon said in a statement.

The Ministry of Defence statement, provided ahead of the strategy unveiling, said that a batch of five general purpose frigates would be built at a cost capped at no more than £250 million (U.S. $324 million) each.

Industry executives , who asked not to be named, said MoD officials believe lower cost commercial yards around the country can undercut BAE on warships like light frigates.

In line with a long-standing policy in the U.K., the warships will be constructed in the country but could be “built in a way which could see them shared between yards and assembled at a central hub,” according to the statement.

The British already have experience assembling warships from blocks.

The Royal Navy’s two new 65,000-ton aircraft carriers were built in large blocks at six yards around the U.K. and floated around the coast to be assembled at the Babcock International yard at Rosyth, Scotland, by a BAE Systems-led industry and MoD alliance.

Cammell Laird is also using the block build process on the £150 million polar research ship being built for the U.K. at its Birkenhead, England, yard.

‘These should unlock our potential’

The strategy content drew a positive response from Sarah Kenny, the chief executive at BMT, Britain’s leading naval design house.

“I am delighted that the strategy sets out an agenda which challenges the U.K. to raise standards and drives us to become more competitive, whilst also creating an environment that better enables success,” Kenny said.

“There are positive socioeconomic benefits to be reaped from cultivating the U.K.’s excellence in naval design and engineering, to deliver on our own ship design and shipbuilding demands. Developed properly, these should unlock our potential giving us a competitive edge in export to other navies around the world,” she added.

The option to block-build the Type 31e could end BAE System’s monopoly on building frigates and other complex warships for the Royal Navy at its Scotstoun and Govan yards.

The company currently has five offshore patrol vessels and three Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates for the Royal Navy on its order book for the Scottish yards.

A further five of the Type 26 frigates are scheduled to be ordered from BAE sometime in the early 2020s in a build program expected to run until 2035.

The MoD originally planned to build 13 of the Type 26 frigates to replace the Type 23 fleet on a one-for-one basis, but cut the number to eight in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, replacing the axed ships with the lighter, cheaper and less capable Type 31e.

The SDSR said that by the 2030s the size of the Type 31 fleet could be increased beyond five warships, helping to rebuild a Royal Navy destroyer and frigate fleet that has shrunk to just 19 vessels.

BAE declined to comment on the shipbuilding strategy.

Aside from Babcock International ― which is building the last of four 90-meter-long offshore patrol vessels for the Irish Naval Service at its Appledore Shipbuilders facility in Devon, southwest England ― no one other than BAE has built a warship for a generation or more.

Unveiling of the national shipbuilding strategy follows recommendations to the government by industrialist John Parker last November regarding how Britain could revive its maritime industry. He said in a statement issued ahead of the parliamentary announcement that the recommendations would “change the shape of naval shipbuilding over the country in the future.”

“The next challenge is to come up with a world-leading design; one that can satisfy the needs of the Royal Navy and the export market. We have the capability to do that, the will is there and it is a tremendous opportunity for UK shipbuilding,” he said.

Release of the strategy is set to trigger the competition to select the light-frigate design.

Maritime industry bosses and other executives have been invited to a Sept. 7 meeting in central London to be briefed on the broad outline of the Type 31e program by Defence Procurement Minister Harriet Baldwin and other senior government officials.

Further details are likely to emerge at an industry-briefing day scheduled toward the end of this month.

The MoD says it wants the first Type 31e in service to replace the Type 23 HMS Argyll in 2023. Analysts in Britain reckon that could be an unrealistic timeline.

The competition to design and build the Type 31e is restricted to British companies, according to an MoD spokesman.

Babcock International, BAE Systems, BMT Defence Services and a small design consultancy known as Stellar Systems are among the companies likely to submit designs when the competition opens.

The MoD is calling the light frigate the Type 31e to emphasize the importance of the warship’s appeal in export markets to future shipbuilding capabilities in the U.K.

Foreign navies have already been canvassed about their capability needs, and some of these have been built into the Royal Navy’s requirements to make the warship attractive in an export market where it will face tough competition from the recently launched French intermediate frigate program and others.

BMT’s Kenny said the shipbuilding strategy’s “endorsement of the [Type 31e] goes some way to promoting indigenous design capability. It is great to see the U.K. government following European counterparts and opening doors for U.K. ship design and shipbuilding in overseas frigate programs. Greater volume of U.K.-designed vessels and the resulting increased collaboration between industry partners and the U.K. enterprise can only result in a more superior solution for any naval customer,” she said.

An MoD spokesman said that while the build in U.K. policy remains for complex warships, that wouldn’t extend to three large logistics-support ships scheduled to be acquired for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

That requirement will be opened to international shipbuilders in the same fashion as the four large oilers ordered for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary from the company Daewoo in South Korea.

Two of the ships have been delivered to the U.K., where they undergo fitting of sensitive equipment at A&P Falmouth, in southwest England, ahead of being handed over to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

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Jeff Head said:

Un-frigging-believable.

They are planning a twelve year window with no ASM for their frigates.

And what of the Darings? The ASM they have is the older harpoons...so are they going to lose it too? IOW, NO ASM AT ALL for the Royal Navy surface combatants?

@Obi Wan Russell ...is this true?

What are they smoking over there at Whale Island and Northwood?

We had to fight like banjees to get decent ASMs back on the LCS, but the US Navy plan with the tactical Tomahawks and the LRASM was already in place and the Burkes will have those...now the lCS and FFGs will also have a very decent ASM.

But for the Royal Navy to loose ASM from 2018 to 2030?

I am shocked!

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Shipbuilding Strategy for the Type 31 Frigate announced – a great day for the Royal Navy ?

After much delay, the Defence Secretary today outlined the National Shipbuilding Strategy, specifically the intention to build at least five Type 31e frigates for the Royal Navy.

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Jeff Head said:

Un-frigging-believable.

They are planning a twelve year window with no ASM for their frigates.

And what of the Darings? The ASM they have is the older harpoons...so are they going to lose it too? IOW, NO ASM AT ALL for the Royal Navy surface combatants?

@Obi Wan Russell ...is this true?

What are they smoking over there at Whale Island and Northwood?

We had to fight like banjees to get decent ASMs back on the LCS, but the US Navy plan with the tactical Tomahawks and the LRASM was already in place and the Burkes will have those...now the lCS and FFGs will also have a very decent ASM.

But for the Royal Navy to loose ASM from 2018 to 2030?

I am shocked!

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