Reality is depressing and I am even struggling with the motivation to finish the bridging series, even though it’s 90% done. So ignoring the fact that we are poorer than a jobless church mouse yet continue with our fantasy spending plans I thought a fantasy kit post was in order. A recent Janes Defence Weekly reported on a Royal Navy [...]
HMS Edinburgh (foreground) conducts her first Replenishment at Sea of their South Atlantic deployment with RFA Black Rover off the coast of West Africa. HMS Edinburgh is currently deployed to conduct maritime security patrols around the British South Atlantic Islands, including the Falklands and South Georgia. On her journey south the type 42 Destroyer will visit a variety of countries off the [...]
The Portsmouth News has reported that HMS Westminster was only carrying 4 Sea Wolf missiles when conducting operations off Libya, or enough for two shots against an airborne threat, missile or aircraft for example. Concerned Royal Navy officers have revealed the Portsmouth-based frigate was ‘dangerously under-defended’ when she was called to patrol close to the Libyan port city of Benghazi [...]
The venerable Sea King ASac Mk7′s have been in the news quite a bit recently, especially given their significant contribution to operations in Afghanistan but the Crows Nest project which seeks to define a replacement has yet to step out into much of the public eye, it being officially a ‘non programme’ at the moment. Given the Sea King Out of Service [...]
Next in the series of guest posts on the future of the British Armed forces from Ixion. I will start with making an apology, for making no apologies about my resistance to CVF, nor my deriding them as white elephants. They are IMHO the biggest pissing up the wall of defence budgets in history. I remain opposed to them [...]
It is fashionable to deride the ‘gold plating’ of defence equipment that inevitably leads a spiral of increasing costs and decreasing quantities but we must not forget that sometimes that gold plating is there for a reason. The Type 45 is the poster child of the gold plating tendency; everyone (me included) cites the project as a typical example, pointing [...]
Reported in the Telegraph today was a story about the lack of ships available for defence of the home islands. The Navy normally provides a minimum coverage of a frigate or destroyer fulfilling the role of Fleet Ready Escort (FRE) in order to be able to respond quickly to a potential threat at home or abroad. However, slashed Defence budgets [...]
You can take your sleek super yachts or 50 knots littoral combat ships and put them you know where seriously, how cool is this? It is designed to meet the needs of the offshore wind industry but it has many features that lend itself to military service, I especially like the ease of handling and of course, modularity. Although seemingly [...]
Defence News recently ran an interview with Sir Mark Stanhope, 1SL, in which he made some interesting comments. In response to a question about selling sea power; The sea blindness which we talk about a great deal is a simple feature of the modern world, where few people appreciate the importance of freedom of the seas to stocking the shelves [...]
A diversion from the shabby goings on elsewhere. The sea mine is the IED of the maritime environment, cheap, easy to deploy and with a tactical and strategic effect out of all proportion to the resources expended. Libya Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) formerly known as Mine Countermeasures Force Northern Europe (MCMFORNORTH) and before that as Standing Naval [...]
A guest post from McZ Since roughly ten years, the RN is struggling to bring up a viable plan to replace the current T22 and T23 classes of surface combatants. Four different projects fielding three workgroups were formed, and while they delivered on analyzing the strategic environment, they failed to translate into actual acquisition. Instead, FSC and predecessors fit well [...]
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their considered feedback and comments on the Security, Interdiction and Maritime Support System (SIMSS) concept I described recently. For what is a hair brain scheme by some random chap off the internet for it to have gathered over 400 comments is a sign of just how engaged the Think Defence [...]
Operating in singles, multiples and a part of a larger force the key attributes of SIMSS is flexibility and adaptability. SIMSS is somewhat of a blank canvas and it is likely that uses will be found for it beyond its initial design and operational concept. When testing the concept of SIMSS it might be interesting to compare it against recent [...]
One of the ways in which we can squeeze maximum value from this concept is to embrace payload modularity. The fundamental thought process behind payload modularity is to sever the link between the means of transport (the ship) and things it carries to complete its mission. Integral to the ship would be accommodation for the permanent crew, power, propulsion and [...]
One of the trends seems to favour compact vessels and then shoe horn as much equipment as possible and in a nod to those secondary roles, squeeze in a couple of containers spots and call that job done, again, a distortion of priorities. Although the well worn phrase about cheap steel and free air only has some validity in the [...]
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