The announcement by the new Defence Minister in regard to new frigate builds has a lot of problems.
One option involves taking the existing Air Warfare Destroyer design and altering it. It is a big ship. Too big for what we consider a frigate. Even if the Air Warfare Destroyer design is based on...a Spanish frigate.
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and lower threat work and sea policing are part of the justification.
For lower threat work and sea policing a much bigger ship will be more expensive to operate. Gross overkill.
Anti-submarine work? If the concern is hundreds of subs in the PacRim in the coming years, a modified Air Warfare Destroyer isn't it.
Surface ships for the ASW mission are only a helper platform. If used wrong, they can be stalked and killed by a submarine.
True ASW work requires more aircraft: both piloted and UAV.
If we are looking at that many threat subs, we better get going on a SOSUS.
A true ASW frigate for our needs would be smaller and very quiet. It would be a roving dragger of a towed array that would be there to fill in the gaps of the other sensors in order to deploy its ASW helicopter. Hopefully detecting threats a CZ out. It would have small SAMS similar to the current frigates. That is: something that isn't bad at self-protection against anti-ship missiles. It would have some minimal gunnery. And, minimal anti-ship missile capability. That last one can be sacrificed in order to have ample health in all the other needed areas including good sea-keeping and reasonable crew accommodation.
And that small package would be good enough for sea-policing.
Back to our current reality. The DMO will be involved. So, expect any kind of dysfunction. The bill? $20B for 8 ships. But that always goes higher does it not?
Too expensive.
Someday, this Australian requirement many take a more serious approach to warfare.
That thinking was done with the current frigates.
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-New Defence White Paper fails to address Australia's core security needs
-2009 Defence White Paper Fantasy
-Analysing "The ADF Air Combat Capability- On the Record"
-Find out who is responsible for the Air Warfare Destroyer mess
-Analysis of Defence Materiel Organisation Major Projects Management and What Needs to be Fixed
-New DMO Boss warns the staff that business as usual is over
-How dangerous is the Defence Material Organisation to our Defence Industry?
-Australia's Failing Defence Structure and Management Methodology
-More on the dud-jamming gear Defence wants to buy
-ADF cost per flying hour
-I will wipe out bullying vows new Defence chief (Houston 2005)
-Vacancy
-Put Vol 2 Report of DLA Piper Review into the light of day
-Rory and Jim
-Parasitism as an Abstraction for Organizational Dysfunctions
-Hobart-class "Air Warfare Destroyer" to be fielded with obsolete radar guidance technology
-The Decay Of Critical Military Thinking And Writing-With Particular Reference To The RAAF
-Newspaper guy gets it right about sub project.... big time
-The great M-1 tank myth
-*UPDATE* Fear and loathing in Canberra - Audit released on MRH-90 helicopter project
-RAN bullies contractor over Collins sub replacement
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - Star-ranks
-Air Warfare Destroyer -- Billions, not millions over budget
-Australia's M-1 tanks are... a downgrade compared to what it had
-Weak links put on rubber-stamp Defence panel
-Insert Joke Here
-Tyranny of distance--Long, drawn out helicopter projects are unsustainable
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - cost per flying hour over the last budget year
-Tiger savaged by Navy League of Australia
-Tiger helicopter update
-Overview of corruption in Australia
-Government ignores its own 'rescue' report created to fix Air Warfare Destroyer woes
-DM Johnston fired in cabinet reshuffle
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