tomuk wrote: ↑11 May 2023, 16:50
SD67 wrote: ↑11 May 2023, 13:57
The Australians did not order Type 26 - they signed up for a project to create an Australian Burke-lite, using the BAE Global Combat Ship as a starting point. That's a 5 year design phase, minimum, whichever ship was chosen as the base. TBH I don't think they're terribly troubled about design maturity as one of the main objectives is to create a local sovereign ship design capability. It's more important that they ship CEAFAR radar than get the ship in the water quickly.
If you read the auditors report it isn't clear what they signed up for and exactly what they have signed up for varies depending on who they ask. As Aus MoD have lost the paperwork the answer to why an ASW frigate was chosen as a base for a mini Burke AAW destroyer is lost to the ether.
We shall see how much redesign happens but fitting a different radar, CMS and hosting different missiles in the Mk41s doesn't make it a different vessel it will still be a version of T26.
So far it also looks like the Hunter class will have substantially greater displacement.
I'd be pretty sure the Aus Department of Defence knew exactly what it was signing up for, regardless of how other parties may view the process from their own perspectives and "world views."
This is the BAe perspective on the relationship between the different designs.:
https://www.baesystems.com/en/product/g ... ombat-ship It looks like they designed a hull with three competitions in mind, which may be why these are the first RN ships to be designed around the Mk41 VLS and Mk45 gun, both of which have been in RAN service for decades. Perhaps that hull was a little large for the RN's needs, but it is starting to look like it may have been a little too small for the RAN. Time will tell.
When the intended roles of the three variants, and the combat systems and sensors used to deliver on that, differ so much, there's not really much point in referencing everything back to the Type 26. It would make just as much sense to call the Type 26 a cut down, limited capability variant of the Hunter class or CSC.