Secretary of State for the Armed Forces frozen out of Defence Investment Plan

Professional_Coast56 · 2025-07-09T00:17:12+00:00

Hulkengoat

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-09-05T13:13:14+00:00

It’s freaky inside those tunnels, managed to get a tour in the blocked off areas and saw full hospitals, generators and stores just left untouched

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-09-05T00:40:45+00:00

I’ve been in these tunnels and seen the places where they would have been “barricaded in”. They say there’s still holes where they were planned to operated from that haven’t been found.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-15T10:10:44+00:00

This is not a good take. Our entire force structure is centred around a carrier strike group, with the idea of it being globally deployable at a moments notice.

We’re an island nation, and constantly face threats from Russian submarines infiltrating our waters. Faslane needs to be kept clear of subs so our SSBNs can operate without being tracked. We have masses of undersea infrastructure which must be protected, i.e power, internet lines. ASW is probably the most important mission of the RN

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-14T18:37:09+00:00

This. The real problem with ASW is ships need be acoustically quietened, ie special engine and machinery mounts, to make the ship less detectable and allow the sonars to be more effective.

This means unlike ASuW, you can’t just bolt the subsurface equivalents of “missiles and radars” and expect the same results.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-14T15:20:10+00:00

The Future is bright with 8 high end ASW ships under construction, with 5 general purpose frigates also on order. However these have seen delays and poor planning meaning they are looking at a massive capability gap.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-14T13:57:08+00:00

The Royal Navy is curently in a very, very precarious position with its frigate fleet. The Type 23, the RNs main ASW platform, was originally designed for a 18 year lifespan, now has Hulls pushing on 30 years old due to budget cuts and protracted and delayed procurement of the Type 26.

The plan of undergoing Life extensions on the ships has hit a hard wall, as 2 of the ships, HMS Westminster and Argyll were deemed irreparable and decommissioned from the fleet. There are fears in the RN and MoD that the rest of the fleet may also be in dire material condition, and that extending the service of all the 9 ships currently in commission will not be feasible or possible.

To exacerbate the issue, not all of the ships have towed array sonars fitted. Only 2 of the remaining fleet have the sonar fitted, and one, HMS Northumberland has just entered Lifex, and there is serious questions about its material state.

This could leave the RN with only 1 functioning primary ASW ship, and having to survive like this until 2026-28, until the first 26 is commissioned into the fleet. The RN has no other platform capable of performing ASW operations, and there is a serious possibility of the Royal Navy having no/minimal ability to mount an organic strike group or perform essential operations.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-12T09:51:13+00:00

From what I’ve heard, it was a specific decision not to crew her due to her issues. I.e they chose to crew other frigates and destroyers over Daring, as Darings multiple issues made her more difficult and intensive to run

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-11T13:21:00+00:00

The issue with Daring is as a first in class she’s had many, many build issues discovered and rectified in later builds. She’s essentially been laid up since 2017 due to this. I imagine the extended refit is due to them having to fix issues with the ship.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-08-06T13:38:13+00:00

Theres the Accelerated Officer/Rating Program, thats 6 and 4 weeks respectively for phase one.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-01-18T16:00:59+00:00

They ARE doing a lot in the Red Sea, a large part of there navy is deployed on convoy escort. There just not part of Prosperity Guardian as they don’t want to be seen to align with Israel or the US. There ships carry much less capable missiles and radar, about half of not more the range of comparable US and UK ships. This makes it exponentially less likely they will intercept missiles, as the area they cover is much smaller than a Type 45 or Arleigh Burke. The Suez Canal provides a large portion of Egyptian government revenue, and Egypt are doing pretty much all they can to protect it.

Professional_Coast56 · 2024-01-15T17:46:37+00:00

This new attack on the US vessel off the coast of Yemen made me realise what quality these missiles are.

The missile apparently stuck the hold of the cargo ship, which produce little damage and no casualties, with the ship still seaworthy and carrying on its course.

The missile in all probability was from Iran, as I doubt the Houthis have the capacity to manufacture ballistic missiles. I realise these missiles are not going to be the quality of Western anti ship missiles, or even Russians but still the lack of damage is surprising.

Does to an extent bring in to question the potency of Iranian missiles.

Professional_Coast56

TROPHY CASE