Some thoughts and opinions on australias new vessels needed under this SEA1180 thingy. Firstly this is just my opinion and thus others are free to disagree.
The Austal OPV at 80m LOA and approx 480 tonnes seems nice, however I feel that they may have tried to put too much onto a small hull. If the same 'fittings' were placed on a 900t hull then logic dictates there would be room to increase speed, robustness, range and seakeeping. The trick of course is to resist the tempatation to add ever more pieces of equipment. At 900t it would still be ensure a fraction of the size of the US Littoral Combat Ship which around 4000t is possibly oversized.
The multihull layout has a lot going for it. Note that Austal can get a large helicopter deck and a hangar all on 480t, whereas some monohull OPVs do not have a hanger even at 1500t. In sailing circles, trimarans are noted for having more carrying capacity (weight) vs catamarans. Wheras Catamarans have more deckspace. A trimaran layout (which I really like) allows for a long narrow hullform which is fast and efficient. It also allows for topweight to be added easily, something difficult in a monohull.
My personal opinion is that an Offshore Patrol Boat should be smaller at around 1200t for a mono, or 900t for a multi. If other vessels are needed, be they mine hunters, hydrographic vessels or Corvettes, then a 2000t hull would be fine for that.
There are many tasks where a larger number of smaller ships should be more suitable than smaller numbers of larger ships. Tasks might include inderdicting asylum seeker boats, fishery protection, stopping drug smugglers, protecting oil rigs and natural gas installations, having a presence in an area, stopping terrorists, assisting vessels in distress, escorting civilain ships off the east coast of Africa, and more. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and the war in Sri Lanka showed that in general larger numbers of smaller craft are preferable to fewer numbers of larger craft when it comes to dealing with assymetric threats. When it comes to engaging other warships or figthing another nation then 'real' warships make sense. Here a corvette makes sense. If a corvette is required then I think it best to do it properly and not try and squeeze too much on too small a hull.
If the idea is to replace the 260t Armidale class with ships at 2000t, I can see that what would end up with is too large to do the job well (or at least cost effectively). How could the Navy be stopped from giving into tempation to add harpoon, ESSM, Nukla decoys, torpedos, towed array sonar, CIWS etc etc. All these things are great on a corvette, but for a vessel to replace the Armidale class is seems a bit much.
In terms of OPVs I like, for more than 30 years now one of my farourite vessels have been the French class D'Estienne d'Orves class. They are at least 30 years old and are still going. They seem very cost effective to build and to run. A ship like this but with a helicopter deck, but no hangar would be ideal I think. I know their old, but they still seem to be doing good work, and doing it cost effectivelu. Perhaps a small unmanned helicopter drone could be added on occasion. Link is here
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Estienne_d%27Orves_class"]D'Estienne d'Orves class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
I notice that Austal is now building the new Bay class for Customs. At 57.8m LOA they seem a fraction lenghtened version of the Navys Armidale class at 56.8m LOA, they also seem more built in forward, logic suggest in order to increase internal volume. It is almost as though Customs is being tasked with the job that the Navy patrol boats are doing now. Wont that put more strain on the Customs boats? I do have to admit that these Bay class seem very nice vessels for Customs, very impressive.
Cape Class Patrol Boats :: Patrol Boats :: Defence Products :: Products And Services :: Austal
If the Navy is attempting to replace the Armidale class with ships at around 2000t, the trouble is that they are likely to cost many, many mulitples of what they are doing away with. The Armidale class cost 24m to $28m each, a vessel at 1800t or 2000t is likley to be well well over $100m. (maybe $200m?) If they mix it all up in one big project of 20 vessels, it will be hard to see the cost of an individual patrol boat. There is a risk that one vessel might come close to the cost of ten of the Patrol boats they are intended to replace. A corvette costing $200m plus is not unusual.
Yes I know they are meant to be fitted out as OPVs, but given the history of the Navy there is a real probability they will keep adding features and features. The public are not going to cause a stink if a ship is upgraded quietly from OPVs to corvettes. All the Navy has to say is that they need to protect their ships from theats. If the vessel was 1200t, it would be much, much harder to add lots of extra equipment, thus the Navy should be better able to resist the tempation to add extra items to these ships and thus increase the cost.
There is a list of Patrol boats here at wikipedia
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_boat"]Patrol boat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
In conclusion,.. sorry for the length of this post. It is simply my opinion, not fact. Others are free to disagree. In general I put up about one post every six months so hope people aren't too upset.
Bloody hell, what is the world coming too ?? If we came back on board smashed and they concidered we were that pissed, they would log it into the day book on the gangway and the QM or BM would do hourly checks on you to make sure you were still alive, usually you would get either poked with a Maglite or a couple of slaps around to cheeks to get a grunt or some sort of response 