A bit of info for you.
I can't imagine any being built until after the LHDs and DDGs are built. I'm thinking in terms not before 2020. I figure no more than a 76-mm gun, maybe less, and at least a SeaRam or Ram close in air defence missile system. Still a good ten years into the future...
Perhaps, perhaps not. While the AWD is to be built in SA, the LHDs are being largely built in Spain and then fitted out in Australia. This leaves a few shipyards available to construct the OCV, particularly since it is to be in the ~2,000 ton displacement range. While I doubt the OCV programme would start soon enough to deliver a vessel before 2015, I could see OCV deliveries starting ~2017 to be somewhat concurrent with the last AWD and/or the start of the Anzac replacement. This becomes particularly true if the RNZN decided to get onboard the OCV concept as well for some of their minor vessels. Such a situation could lead to the first OCV being delivered sooner (2016-ish), rather than later, depending on design/build timeframes. Granted the earlier OCV's in this situation would likely be for the RNZN to replace some of their support vessels, it could still fit within the overall OCV concept.
For whom? Unfortunately, it appears the only buyers of such ships is the US Navy, and only because the US Navy requires ferries to support its forces at Okinawa. If the US didn't have forces at Okinawa, I doubt seriously the US Navy would have bought them.
The new pre-enlistment fitness test, that adds the push/sit ups to the shuttle run, came into force of April 1st. This is due the high number of recruits not being able to pass the RAN Fitness Test once they are in RTS.
When we are in too deep for rescue I am really interested in 'defensive' UUVs. So we could have highly modularized UUVs that can be tasked for offensive ISR purposes and then a seperate set of UUVs modularized to deploy when on station tasked with monitoring the hull 'life ecosystems'. So we can seriously push the operational boundaries like never before.
I'm sure its old news to them. Very interesting article LB, thanks for the link. Would be interested to hear what GF et al make of this.Looks like we might be able to break Moore's law finally with memristors. I hope GF and DSTO and the new DMTC in Bendigo are right on top of this stuff.
Memristor discovery could lead to faster HPC | Emerging Tech | ZDNet UK
The official paper was released in Nature:
Access : |[lsquo]|Memristive|[rsquo]| switches enable |[lsquo]|stateful|[rsquo]| logic operations via material implication : Nature
Outside of possibly a few allied F-3Bs landing on the Canberra class LHDs, no. The LHDs don't have the fuel or munitions bunkers to operate F-35Bs effectively. There is much more to a light carrier than a flat top...
I understand this, I in no way think of the canberra class as an aircraft carrier, there is very much more to it than that, I am talking about the possibility for us to operate the jsf, as the USMC currently does with the harriers on the Wasp class. It is not intended for high sortie rates on an extendd period of time, but for air support of the landing force in the first instance. The Austtralian Government view that the RAAF can cover us from land based fighters on the mainland, I think is very short sighted. Heavens forbid if we had to land any force outside of the flight distance of our fighters. OH wait thats when as usual we expect the Americans or Brits to get us out of the ****. Not every situation in the future will have immediate support of our allies, expecally if we have to lift not only our own, but other country's expats at short notice, among many other possibility's.
I know it's a long way to go back, but I'd recommend re-reading this thread from about page 165 onwards. The LHDs and their utility (or lack thereof) as fast jet carriers are discussed pretty exhaustively, and some of the points discussed might interest you. Also if you search around the Navy forums there are quite a few old threads pertinent to the Canberra class. Hope you enjoy.