Tag: Royal Navy
Learning Lessons from Libya, ISR and Maritime Land Attack
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 [...]
Some Ships
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 [...]
An Empty Quiver
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 [...]
LM Vigilance Pod
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 [...]
Defence – The Royal Navy
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. [...]
Why Type 45 Gold Plating Matters
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 [...]
Too Many Tasks – Not Enough Ships
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 [...]
11 on the Awesome Scale
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 [...]
The First Sea Lord
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 [...]
Naval Mine Countermeasures
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 [...]
TYPE 27 – One tier, evolvable and affordable
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, [...]
A Ship That Is Not a Frigate – Follow up and Feedback
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 [...]
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