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Challenger

No doubt there are plenty of challenges with money and capacity, but T26 & T31 really need to built ‘at pace’ considering how clapped out the T23’s are.

Probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone but the MoD that Northumberland is in a terrible material state and Sutherland has been in LIFEX for a very long time so must have been riddled with issues too.

Sean

Great to see tangible progress on the T26 programme. Will be interesting to see how the build/fit-out time is reduced with each ship.

N-a-B

It is believed HMS Cardiff is in a slightly more advanced state of completion than HMS Glasgow when she was floated off

I’d love to see some evidence to back that up. Anecdotally, she’s actually got less outfitting than Glasgow……

“The float-off process is a modern, efficient, and lower-risk, if rather less dramatic method of launching a ship compared to the traditional dynamic launches”

Don’t confuse “modern” with “lack of alternatives in the constrained yards on the Clyde “. I’ll grant you that it has some potential efficiencies in that you don’t have to account for berth declivity when conducting your datum marking and alignment checks etc, but then again, you’re also hiring a barge for several days, tugs for a lot longer than a dynamic launch etc. Lower risk is also arguable – you’ve actually got several serials involved in the whole procedure, from transfer onto the barge, alignment, welding of sea-fastenings, a (comically long) transit, followed by a slow docking down where you’re dependent on the ballasting system of the barge, plus time spent removing sea fastenings. Probably 2-3 days of exposure to various risks, as opposed to a few hours with a traditional launch.

Irate Taxpayer (Peter)

N-a-b

There is a very easy solution to the perceived challange of “lack of alternatives in the constrained yards on the Clyde ..

  • Knock it all down, and then sell the land off to a developer, for new apartments
  • = and use all the that money to invest in a properly sized and properly laid out modern shipward
  • and a moder shipyard needs to be located much further down the River Clyde
  • and selecting an all new-site should, quite obviously, be one where the new warship’s can actually float…

reagrds Peter (Irate Taxpayer)

Hugo

A traditional launch that can quickly result in smacking into the side of the river like one of the bay class did, I hardly see a barge having any risks like that.

Will

The new frigates really are very impressive ships. Cue the broken record, but it really wouldn’t take a massive increase in funding to flesh out the RN’s escort force to something closer to the numbers that are actually needed. I keep holding out hope that maybe there will be a T31 Batch II (5 more of this somewhat less expensive design).

Jason

No definite ASW weapons except Sting Rays on a Merlin helicopter or two.