Cannot see NZ acquiring them because they are nothing more than a glorified OPV. By the time you pay for the requisite upgrades it would be just as cheap or cheaper to go direct to OMT, acquire a license for the F370 design and build to your specs in a yard of your choice. Maybe South Korea etc.
The problem with deploying SSMs in VLS Launchers instead of Box Launchers is you need to have a decent number of VLS on board or you are going to use up Cells required for SAMs and most SAMs these days are using VLS. You have to ask the question, especially for smaller Warships, what is easier to do? add extra Strike Length VLS to your design or use Box Launchers, i suspect it will be the latter.
This.
Has the development of the VL-JSM progressed any further, could it be an option? Exclusive: New Details on the Kongsberg Vertical Launch Joint Strike Missile (VL JSM)
It's always an option, it's just a matter of how many hoops you want to jump through to make it happen. You can stick a topside launcher over compartments allocated for other use. VLS pretty much wipes out everything above and below, and to some extent, around the placement of the cells.
As I said huge upgrade potential. We buy second hand vessels for the navy on a consistent basis.
No, because they cost a fortune to maintain and operate. We discovered that with the frigates Wellington and Southland.
The Iver Huitfeldt and the Type 31 were designed using commercial off the shelf equipment, they were designed to be cheap to operate and maintain.
Point noted but the 31s would theoretically have been in service for 10-15 years and a decent fit out of weapons and so forth would put some work the way of NZ yards,
Related to T31, I found this in routing thru a couple of different links...
I am very aware of the Iver Huitfeld class, their capabilities, their design philosophy etc. That's why I like them and why I would rather deal directly with OMT and license their F-370 design rather than go with the Type 31 after the Poms have "improved" it. If there's a difficult, hard or expensive way of doing things the Poms will find it, especially the RN.
I think its unlikely to go further, NSM is better as a box launcher, its light weight and compact, two things you really don't need in a VL missile but do want on a box launcher. You could put a quad NSM launcher in a lot of places you couldn't put a quad harpoon launcher.
I believe OMT has freshened the supply lines for the Indonesians. So OMT IMO would make a fair bit of sense.
That's correct. It's a big reason why they're sure they can deliver on budget, because the Royal Navy/MOD won't be allowed to "tweak" the design and slow things down, thereby increasing costs.
They do seem to be coming at this from a completely new angle compared to previous acquisitions. I'm honestly very interested to see how it goes - it has been pointed out that the timescales for delivery are extremely tight (and have to be to provide replacements for the Type 23 GP variants)
That's far to logical. It'd be against the civil service rules.
