The Royal Navy Discussions and Updates

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swerve

Super Moderator
No. He's only just acknowledged that it might be a good idea to try to win an election. Before that, it was all about 'building a movement'. He spoke as if he thought the only purpose of his party was to oppose. His history has consisted entirely of opposition. When Labour was in government he opposed his own leadership, & he seems to have difficulty grasping the idea of doing anything other than criticising.

He's been a disaster as party leader: utterly incompetent. In one case someone found out she'd been appointed to the shadow cabinet from a press release, & meanwhile she was being sacked from it, also without being told, because Corby had realised that he'd accidentally given her part of someone else's job. Oh, & this was while she was in hospital being treated for cancer. She got out of hospital & started acting as shadow minister, & was back in her office before she discovered that she'd only had the job for one day.

That's typical of his management skills.
 
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StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
KiwiRob said:
Do you really think Labour with that leader has any hope of winning a future general election in the UK?
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None whatsoever, but Successor is a program with long lead times so it's a factor at least to consider.

I don't want to get a political discussion underway in this thread but suffice to say, Corbyn can't actually form an entire shadow cabinet, given so many of his MP's have declared they have no confidence in him. I've not followed up the aftermath of the leadership election but I won't be voting Labour if he's in charge and neither will a fair few of the people I've talked to.
 
ngatimozart

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
StobieWan said:
None whatsoever, but Successor is a program with long lead times so it's a factor at least to consider.

I don't want to get a political discussion underway in this thread but suffice to say, Corbyn can't actually form an entire shadow cabinet, given so many of his MP's have declared they have no confidence in him. I've not followed up the aftermath of the leadership election but I won't be voting Labour if he's in charge and neither will a fair few of the people I've talked to.
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:eek:fftopic Considering Corbyns attitude towards nuclear weapons and defence he has to be taken into account. Given that the gerrymandered great hairy unwashed of the wider party membership voted him to the role of leader, what is the possibility of a number of current Labour MPs resigning from the party and serving the rest of their terms as independents or forming a party of their own? They would certainly attract centre left voters and that in itself could have some impact on RN SSBN & SSN programs in the long term.
 
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StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
:eek:fftopic

either way, I suspect we end up with a Conservative government, who traditionally have tended to be just incompetent on defence, rather than directly opposed to it I suppose. If Labour split (and it's a possibility at least) then they'l fragment the vote still further, weakening opposition infuence.


Back on topic, that puts the Vanguards well past sell-by date so we can look forward to ballooning costs for the sub fleet to keep the bombers at sea. You'd think with experience of keeping the 42's in service as long would have weakened their appetite for that...
 
ngatimozart

ngatimozart

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Staff member
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The RN has announced the name of the lead boat for the Successor SSBNs:
On the most important day in the Royal Navy’s calendar - Trafalgar Day - Her Majesty The Queen has given her consent for the 17,200-tonne boat to carry the name Dreadnought. It’s a warship title which goes back to the reign of Elizabeth I, more than 450 years, but was most famously borne by two British warships in the 20th Century.
Famous name returns for first of Royal Navy's newest nuclear submarines
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This boat will be tenth iteration of the Dreadnought name with No 9 being the RNs first nuclear boat. Dreadnought No 8 was the ship that, when launched in 1906, rendered all of the worlds battle fleets obsolete.

For those unaware of RN & Commonwealth naval tradition, the 21st of October is celebrated as Trafalgar Day to celebrate Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21/10/1805 when he routed the combined French / Spanish fleet far larger than his own. It also remembers Nelsons death on HMS Victory after being shot by a French marksman from the Redoutable.
 
John Newman

John Newman

The Bunker Group
ngatimozart said:
The RN has announced the name of the lead boat for the Successor SSBNs:

This boat will be tenth iteration of the Dreadnought name with No 9 being the RNs first nuclear boat. Dreadnought No 8 was the ship that, when launched in 1906, rendered all of the worlds battle fleets obsolete.

For those unaware of RN & Commonwealth naval tradition, the 21st of October is celebrated as Trafalgar Day to celebrate Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21/10/1805 when he routed the combined French / Spanish fleet far larger than his own. It also remembers Nelsons death on HMS Victory after being shot by a French marksman from the Redoutable.
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Dreadnought certainly seems to be a worthy name for the lead boat of the RN's next fleet of SSBN's, be interesting to know what names will be chosen for the three other boats in the fleet.

Far be it for me (a Skippy from OZ), to come up with some names, but I've always liked some of the early 20th century capital ship names.

Could do worse than those three remaining boats being called either Warspite, Rodney, Nelson or even Hood too.

Anyway, Dreadnought is a good start.
 
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StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
Interesting choice as they've used six of the D names on the Type 45 class so if they follow with a letter class name scheme, which the Vanguard and Trafalgar classes all did, we'd be digging in the barrel for another four good solid names.
 
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Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
StobieWan said:
Interesting choice as they've used six of the D names on the Type 45 class so if they follow with a letter class name scheme, which the Vanguard and Trafalgar classes all did, we'd be digging in the barrel for another four good solid names.
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Danae, Dainty, ?
 
MrConservative

MrConservative

Super Moderator
Staff member
HMS Devonshire, Defiance and Dido would also be good names for the following three if they wish to follow the D moniker.

HMS Duff, Doris and Desperate probably not so good.
 
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StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
Volkodav said:
Danae, Dainty, ?
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Daffodil?

Demon possibly but the rest of the Daring class names not already used aren't great (Desperate, seriously, who came up with that one?)

HMS Death? Have we got a Death in the RN? HMS DEaaaaath.

I'm in a whimsical mood, sorry.

Okay, good news I guess, this keeps us in the nuke business (in terms of power train) a bit longer. Which means planning Astute's successor is feasible - PWR3 might be a fit or whatever reactor is state of the art at the time.
 
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StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
40 deg south said:
The Royal Navy's New Frigates and the National Shipbuilding Strategy

This defense-aerospace article links to background briefing paper on RN frigates and the proposed UK ship-building strategy.

Useful reading for anyone with an interest in the RN/ British ship-building.
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It's interesting background but the discussion around the low end variant seems to suggest it'd have to be an entirely new design which means any savings made in not re-using the Type 26 hull for the GP variant will be eaten into by the design costs for this new variant.

I guess skipping a lot of the complex drive arrangements for the ASW variant must drive the cost down a fair bit.
 
John Fedup

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
StobieWan said:
I guess skipping a lot of the complex drive arrangements for the ASW variant must drive the cost down a fair bit.
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The Type 26 has a CODLOG propulsion system using 4 MTU diesels, 2 electric motors and a MT-30 gas turbine. Will ditching the turbine and electric motors and adding a combining transmission make any significant dent in the Type 26's cost if it were to be the basis for a GP frigate? The current estimated price for the Type 26 is £ 1 billion.
 
4

40 deg south

Well-Known Member
StobieWan said:
Daffodil?

Demon possibly but the rest of the Daring class names not already used aren't great (Desperate, seriously, who came up with that one?)

HMS Death? Have we got a Death in the RN? HMS DEaaaaath.

I'm in a whimsical mood, sorry.

Okay, good news I guess, this keeps us in the nuke business (in terms of power train) a bit longer. Which means planning Astute's successor is feasible - PWR3 might be a fit or whatever reactor is state of the art at the time.
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There are plenty of 'D' words that would be suitable, given the state of the Royal Navy's procurement efforts.

HMS Dismal? Dire? Doleful? Disaster? Dysfunctional?
 
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