Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0

[John Fedup]

I don’t mean this meanly but, as an outsider looking in, and noting the reported uniformed strength of the RAN and its trend over recent years, do we have any choice?

Like other western navies wrt manpower issues, not really. Big ships with designed in survival features are expensive but worse still need big crews, a very expensive requirement for 30-40 years. Small highly automated ships, less expensive but crew fatigue means not as effective and probably vulnerable if struck. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. No wonder SSKs with crews of 35-70 are looking better everyday.

 

[K.I.]

Wouldn’t surprise me. The west has never built a complex warship, and at presently has no facility capable of doing so - they are struggling with basic as bat sh*t Arafuras (ASC didn’t struggle to build them; that was not the issue). I would think we would be at least 10 years away from delivery of the first west built frigate, even if the order was placed tomorrow. If you truly want to start plugging a potential capability gap that is probably quite a bit too long

Probably a big issue not being acknowledged, they won't know if they've improved the build process until the LCs start rolling out. Potential derisking with the GP project may be first three full overseas build and the next three will have the combat/local systems fitted at Henderson?