Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1220268
importance here. It was to make it possible to accom- plish two objectives. First, it was to pave the way for the Type 31E towards the export marketplace – there the de- mand for expensive, specialized ASW warships is not so high. Smaller, cheaper and universal vessels are much more desirable. Secondly, the domestic customer – the Royal Navy staff – saw the new class as an opportunity to recover or even a recovery of the quantitative poten- tial that would correspond with the inventory of assets that had been available before the MoD's SDSR 2010 re- view. For that reason, despite the fact that the original proceedings assume that 5 vessels would be acquired, the Royal Navy has undertaken lobbying activities to ex- tend this order with another few vessels belonging to the type. For the aforesaid reasons the program in question is also burdened with a very rigorous assumption: a single Type 31 is to cost less than 250 million GBP. Quoting as such has met a lot of critique from the defense experts, doubting whether a multi-role frigate as such could even be built, with that kind of equipment and sensors and ar- mament, at that price point. The British MoD, responding to the aforesaid claims, said that most of the equipment (such as the CAMM anti-aircraft missiles or sonar sys- tems) could be provided free of charge, from the Royal Navy's stock. The aforesaid plan was also quite doubtful as it would entail a necessity to dismantle equipment from Type 23 beforehand. Then that equipment would need to be refurbished and only after that it could be installed on the new warships. This process would take years and it would also create a gap between withdrawal of the legacy vessels from operational service and com- missioning of their replacements. Ultimately, two consortia expressed their willingness to participate in the acquisition procedure: • Team 31 led by Babcock Marine with Thales BMT, Harland & Wolff and Ferguson Marine; • Team Leander, involving BAE Systems and Cammell Laird. The former team offered the 120 m long Arrowhead 120 vessel with displacement of 4,000 tonnes, top speed ex- ceeding 24 knots and range, at economic speed of 15 knots, of 6,000 NM. The competing concept was named Leander. This concerned a vessel with displacement of 3,700 tonnes, 120 meters long, with top speed exceeding 25 knots and range of 8,100 NM at 18 knots. As we can see, both offers concerns relatively light, similar vessels of limited top speed and limited modernization potential. The situation changed when Team 31 announced a new design in May 2018. The Team made a decision to offer NAVY