Indeed, but I am quite sure you’ll recall even the Arafura in it’s down-graded spec from it’s sister class Darussalam Class OPV‘s were designed for and intended to carry a larger and more powerful main deck gun than the “interim” (cough…) gun they are carrying now, so in part that issue is already covered off in some regard. I’d also not be surprised at all if the Arafura’s were capable in a design sense of operating the 57mm Mk.3 as fitted to her sister ships. We know cost was a driver of the class not capability and we know that RAN did not design out medium helicopter capability from the pad and superstructure of the ship. Such design changes afterall would have incurred substantial engineering changes (including cost and schedule creep) to the base platform.
As Volk will attest it’s the system that primarily effect cost, not the steel, but wholesale changes to literally design out medium helicopters or a gun as capable as a 57mm Mk.3 would have been extensive AND expensive (and quite unnecessary).
Which is not to say any improved combat capability is planned or even required at present, but ruling it out completely is a bit silly given historical precedent.
As to missile blast concerns, there is no doubt engineering studies would be required, even to add modular systems, cold-launch or otherwise.
But it’s a bold statement saying it “can‘t or won’t be done. Afterall, we know anecdotally that RAN has investigated options in this space and we know historically RAN has a long history of up-arming it’s ships during their service.
I do recall that the
Arafura-class is based off the design of the
Darussalam-class OPV, what I do not know and am loathe to assume, is what actual similarities remain between the two designs. The first three examples of the
Darussalam-class OPV for instance feature a 57 mm Bofors Mk3 main gun and Exocet AShM, whilst the last example has a 27 mm Mauser instead. What I do not know and have not been able to find out, is whether or not the Mk 3's fitted aboard the RBN OPV's are the deck-penetrating guns with a 1,000 round magazine below deck under the gun mounting, or the non-deck penetrating Mk 3 version, which has a much smaller magazine inside the gun itself.
Or for that matter what gun mountings carried over in the design of the
Arafura-class OPV. If the
Darussalam-class was designed with a magazine below the gun mounting, I could very easily see Australia requesting design changes to remove the magazine and gun mounting altogether because any space used for the deck penetration and then especially the magazine, that is potential compartment space which could be used for other purposes.
As I have mentioned in this thread more than once, yes, the OPV's could be upgunned, but there are a number of questions which should be asked. One is how much it would cost to upgun them, another is to what degree would any upgunning be done? Closely related to such questions would be, is it worth it? I thought before, and continue to think that the options likely available to increase the combat capability of the
Arafura-class would only provide a modest improvement in capability at best. All without being sufficient to enable an upgunned OPV to protect itself from potential threats, or increasing the vessel's survivability in the event it was actually damaged in combat.
It would be quite interesting to find out what the
Arafura-class design retained from the
Darussalam-class though it is also likely that those who might be in a position to know, are not in a position to comment.
