Yeah, RN delivery due in 2015 isn't it?
HMS Clyde was due back in 2012 but following an extension to the current contract she will remain in the South Atlantic until 2018
I'm replying here rather than the RAF thread to avoid dragging the RAF thread off track.
Agreed an unhappy tail where again we might have saved a lot of money and had access to better systems, had we just brought off the shelf. The scope for savings with a more structure approach to procurement, should hopefully provide headroom as the decade progresses.
The problem with off the shelf (an approach with which I personally agree) is that many of its advantages are based on the assumption that the primary purpose of the MoD's equipment budget is to buy equipment for the armed forces. Buying best kit off the shelf may be preferable from a bang-for-your-buck perspective but we all know that the MoD's budget is used for support of the UK's industrial policy as much as for support of the UK's armed forces.
Ah, missed that. Thanks for the pointer.
There are alternatives. Don't the Italians make some decent torpedoes? Consider the Black Shark - "In full production for several major Navies". How many countries have bought British torpedoes recently? The Germans have exported versions of the DM2 rather successfully, & the DM2A4 or whatever they follow it with could be acceptable. Or maybe the F21, now under development in France.
Good point - I'd forgotten those European chappies were in the game. Did Stingray get an orders? I'm sure Spearfish didn't. Mind, it's still competitive right now so a few block mods should keep it fresh for a bit yet (the core is a very fast torpedo so improved sensors and I believe it got or was set to get a fibre optic guideline)
Norway bought Stingray quite recently, a quick look at Wiki says Thailand bought it as well.
Why does Britain need an aircraft carrier to protect the Falklands? They ARE an aircraft carrier (actually two). If they based mobile SAMs and a few roving patrols with the capacity to designate targets for a SSM battery or two West of Stanley, then a small reaction force with a half a dozen helicopters should force the Argentines to coordinate a larger operation than could be hidden from Satellite assets. In the case of a major operation in the works, the UK would route an SSN to the area and dispatch everything afloat in a newly declared 200 mile exclusion zone. Meanwhile, Typhoons with in flight refueling could arrived fully armed to conduct very serious air superiority ops. Cruise missiles from an SSN (the same one as before) could do a lot of damage in a punitive attack after that. The most the Argentines could do is hole up a small group of Paras dropped or scurried onto the islands in the initial phase. Good luck resupplying those guys once a company of RN commandos go hunting for them... The most Argentina would get out of it is another bloody nose and a resetting of the 99 year clock to continue their claim to the land under international law.
Thailand remains the only Stingray user in South East Asia. These are fitted on a pair of corvettes made in the U.S. I was told at a defence exhibition many years ago that is the price of Stingray scares off a lot of potential customers.
Where does Clyde go for routine docking?
For UK PLC, the F-35 is extraordinarily cheap because the tax take on the large workshare the UK has won offsets the cost of F-35. There would be no significant workshare in it for UK PLC with either the SH or Rafale
HMS Clyde's home port is HMNB Portsmouth with a host of other ships.
Where did I say we did?
Agreed. Obvious but agreed just the same.
I assume then that she returns to the UK every 2 years? Considering that the maintenance is contracted I would have thought that the contractors would find a shipyard a little closer, say Capetown/Simonstown?
Well this article insinuates that she used too go back to Portsmouth for servicing but now with an engineer on site it can constantly stay and be serviced on the islands.