shark bait wrote:They are not escorts, patrol ships at best. Floreal in particular is little more than a patrol boat.
I've been thinking about what a carrier escort would look like. One specifically designed to accompany our carriers as opposed to something like the Type 26 which has a much wider role.
It would have to be fast, carriers during flight ops want as much wind over their decks as possible so figure 25 knts into the wind. The poor escort needs to be able to sprint ahead, then drift and use it's towed array. Hence you'd want at least 33 knts and the more above that the merrier. It doesn't have to be quiet, though could be gold plated as such. Hence gas turbines are almost certain.
It also doesn't need long range, you can assume tanker support will be readily available and following the carrier. Rather than the close escort AAW role of a Type 45 or Tico these would be outer ring escorts particularly down threat and screening the approaches. The biggest threat is likely to be SSKs trying to manoeuvre into the path of the carrier. Hence AAW fit would be more towards self defence, particularly useful would be powerful point defences, if there were Vampires inbound it's job would be to get between them and the carrier.
Anti surface is unlikely to be required so we can dispense with a medium calibre gun and merely fit CIWS plus a small CAMM silo. A mix of 57mm and 30mm would probably be ideal. Asroc would be a useful capability, though the trend seems to be more towards mounting heavyweight torpedoes.
With the carrier providing several long ranged ASW helicopters it arguably wouldn't even need a helicopter pad, maybe just a Wildcat sized one though not strictly necessary. Stealth too would be almost counter productive, sadly it's job would be to eat threats that couldn't be defeated rather than to remain undetected.
What might be useful is UAV operation, especially if several could loft MAD sensors. There's various methods used to launch and recovery though the specifics of this could greatly drive ship design.
Hence the design constraints don't necessarily lead to a behemoth, something along the lines of a modern and faster Bronstein class which was sub 3000 tonnes full load.
Before anyone gets excited I'm not advocating such, merely pointing out that it wouldn't look much like a Type 26 and certainly not a Type 31.