We don’t seem to get much in the way of armed forces news here so thought I’d add some.
One bugbear many people have with the Navy currently is its almost complete lack of teeth – despite 19 escorts and 2 carriers, only 2 frigates currently carry any anti-ship weapons at all (the F-35s have no anti-ship armament beyond bombs), in the form of ageing Harpoons that are due to be retired in 2023. HMG had previously ran a program to buy an off-the-shelf replacement to cover the gap before a Franco-British program delivers a more sophisticated missile in the 2030s, but this was cancelled on cost grounds about a year ago. This leaves us with a surface fleet that can defend itself extremely well, but can’t actually do much about anyone else’s navy…which kinda defeats the point. The attack submarines remain lethal but are few in number; just 5 in service currently (building to 7 over the next few years)
It seems the war in Ukraine is changing enough minds that that cancellation is reversed and a small stock of AShMs will now be purchased after all – from the defence committee’s minutes it seems that this has been rapidly accelerated, the defence secretary said that a contract was actually in negotiation right now and that a weapon had already been selected.
The effect of this should be to up-gun the navy in the short term, which is fantastic (particularly since the effectiveness of such weapons was so well demonstrated by the Moskva’s sinking), but it may also help more long term too. The new Type 31 frigates in build (which by design also have have no anti-ship armament) may also benefit by simply taking over these weapons from retiring Type 23’s when they come into service, as they’ll necessarily be of a type that can be simply bolted on to some free deck space rather than need to be loaded into a launcher like the [Mk41](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_41_Vertical_Launching_System) or [Sylver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylver_Vertical_Launching_System). The Type 26 frigates will have an integral Mk41 and should have the Franco-British weapon soon after entry into service.
So going off recent UK military developments it will come in 5 years late, over twice the initial budget, and won’t work if it is Tuesday or if the waves are higher than 3cm?
Playing catch up with the Chinese?
Too late, the Tory ship is already sinking! 😅
No ammo but soon a new anti ship missile! And with what money?
Saw how useful they have been in the Black Sea recently.
6 comments
We don’t seem to get much in the way of armed forces news here so thought I’d add some.
One bugbear many people have with the Navy currently is its almost complete lack of teeth – despite 19 escorts and 2 carriers, only 2 frigates currently carry any anti-ship weapons at all (the F-35s have no anti-ship armament beyond bombs), in the form of ageing Harpoons that are due to be retired in 2023. HMG had previously ran a program to buy an off-the-shelf replacement to cover the gap before a Franco-British program delivers a more sophisticated missile in the 2030s, but this was cancelled on cost grounds about a year ago. This leaves us with a surface fleet that can defend itself extremely well, but can’t actually do much about anyone else’s navy…which kinda defeats the point. The attack submarines remain lethal but are few in number; just 5 in service currently (building to 7 over the next few years)
It seems the war in Ukraine is changing enough minds that that cancellation is reversed and a small stock of AShMs will now be purchased after all – from the defence committee’s minutes it seems that this has been rapidly accelerated, the defence secretary said that a contract was actually in negotiation right now and that a weapon had already been selected.
The effect of this should be to up-gun the navy in the short term, which is fantastic (particularly since the effectiveness of such weapons was so well demonstrated by the Moskva’s sinking), but it may also help more long term too. The new Type 31 frigates in build (which by design also have have no anti-ship armament) may also benefit by simply taking over these weapons from retiring Type 23’s when they come into service, as they’ll necessarily be of a type that can be simply bolted on to some free deck space rather than need to be loaded into a launcher like the [Mk41](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_41_Vertical_Launching_System) or [Sylver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylver_Vertical_Launching_System). The Type 26 frigates will have an integral Mk41 and should have the Franco-British weapon soon after entry into service.
So going off recent UK military developments it will come in 5 years late, over twice the initial budget, and won’t work if it is Tuesday or if the waves are higher than 3cm?
Playing catch up with the Chinese?
Too late, the Tory ship is already sinking! 😅
No ammo but soon a new anti ship missile! And with what money?
Saw how useful they have been in the Black Sea recently.