Not a good sign, BAE in Barrow was on fire this morning. Not sure how this will impact the UKs submarine programme and any knock-on effects to SSN-AUKUS. Hopefully the impact will be minimal.
This is exactly why having Australia as a second source or yard would add so much capability. I don't think it will impact our submarines because everything immediate is coming from the US, I also think the UK moved out the last of their subs out of the build hall?
www.navylookout.com
One still in there?
Not quite sure where he thinks a Tomahawk would fit on an ANZAC. I think it would tip over if we tried.
I noted he also made an argument for Tomahawks on the Collins, which I suspect is equally difficult.
Anzacs are now pretty much on a life support program, they are old, hard worked ships, heavily upgraded, with no spare growth margins in anything. We should do everything not to break them before we can get replacements.
Collins is actually a bit easier, even though its a sub. A mk48 torpedo is a 5.8m 530mm 1.8t lump. A TLAM is a 6.25, 520mm (unencapsulated) 1.6T lump. So TLAM is actually lighter than the torpedo's Collins currently fires. A console could be made multirole, and the combat system is already integrated because of Virginias. Collins has 6 "launch tubes" and a theoretical 22 munitions (peace time load is more like 6 filling it with 22 is likely to make for unhappy sailors as it removes bunks, gym space, reduced agility, and greater risk in weapons handling such are subs). Also Collins is far, far more survivable than a Anzac. There is probably an argument Collins could get so close as to fire a Harpoon which it can already.
One Collins could have greater strike power than two Hobart's. While the Hobart's can carry more missiles, they aren't as survivable in close and obvious launch platforms that will be watched the whole way from FBE, and also have to carry and focus on air defence for their job, If you could load 8 TLAM in a realistic fire-able way, I would be surprised.
Collins would never make a good TLAM launch platform, it doesn't have good situation awareness, coms are an issue, it can only fire six at a time max, but that isn't the point. Its deterrence. It could sit anywhere, and the enemy would have to be extremely vigilant to track and find something, and it could launch a decent volley at say a stationary target from an unexpected direction. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets re-assessed when we do get SSN to do the other tasks. Collins would be great as a stationary hidden missile platform, there is huge value in that. Sit off a strait, on the Indian ocean side, ready to roll. Possibly the biggest issue is the TLAM Composite Capsule Launching System encapsulated modules, no one wants to part with them!$ 26m in 2015 for 100. At that price, we should acquire some, so if at a later time we want to do the weapons handling required to do it, we could. Or at least the enemy couldn't rule it completely out.
There is this "belief" that a heart, lung, kidney, liver transplant, combined with hip and knee replacements, can be done in the same time frame as we used to do minor dental work and a haircut
When the hospital is already full, we have Hobart's going under the knife, two new frigate programs, ship maintenance and amphibious stuff. There isn't the man power to even run a project like that right now, let alone the space or time or money. NSM is great, its not as long ranged, but its way more suitable for the Anzac platform. We might as will dig up the F111's, turn those to boats, and fit TLAM onto those, it could come out of the RAAF budget and manpower.
Greg doesn't sell papers unless there is drama in what he is writing.