UK seeks £2billion Saudi destroyer contract

what the hell is going off here??

www.presstv.ir...






[edit on 22-3-2007 by st3ve_o]

Why are you so surprised st3ve_o?

Surely you must have realised that this order and that of the Eurofighter, was the main reason the whole fraud investigation was dropped on the advice of our President, Dictator Blair?

Or was that outburst, more tonge in cheek?

Well, Saudi is buying the best. Great news for British industry.
Regards

I'd rather beef up the Type 42s we have now and sell them instead, keeping the Type 45s for us alone. Possibly our true allies (the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc.) if they want to buy them.

I have no objection whatsoever to our defence budget increasing to allow Britain to develop its own ships, tanks, planes and so on and - just as importantly - develop enough of them. Taxes are high enough to fund this - get more people off welfare and put the money saved into the defence budget. If you didn't want to do that then scrap the ID card scheme - saving an instant £5billion at least - and put the cash saved on that into defence procurement. Six Type 45s isn't enough. Twelve is the minimum we should have (which we were originally going to procure). And the sad thing is that it isn't going to be the current government that suffers, it's going to be governments ten, twenty, thirty years down the line who feel the pain on this one. The world is only going to get more and more dangerous, with terrorism and rogue states such as the North Koreans and Iranians becoming more and more threatening. We've also got the rise of China to deal with. And I would also point out that we should learn from history. Remember that Britain is an island? Remember the U-boat menace? A powerful, modern Navy is as important - if not more so - than a powerful Army and Air Force for an island nation such as ours.

This is one major area where I disagree with the government (or, more accurately, the Treasury) - they really shouldn't be allowed to dictate the defence of the nation with their cost-cutting exercises and power plays.

The only strange thing here is the statement that the Type 45 is the World's most advanced destroyer.

Hardly seems justified unless I'm misreading its capabilities.

I quote from the official Navy page of their splurg about the destroyer:

The Type 45 will be able to carry up to 48 Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles.

Lets hope that any potential enemy runs out of missiles before our ships do!

For a more in depth read, here is the main link:

www.naval-technology.com...

I have to say that I agree with Retseh. I don't see anything special about this frigate dressed up as a destroyer which may or may not be armed with tomohawk cruise missiles.

No wonder our Navy is next to useless!

The Saudi's have been buying the best tech the West will sell them for years. Because of that they are one of the better equiped armed forces in the Middle East behind countries like Israel of course.

If Saudi Arabia cant control its own water ways its Oil industry is useless

Originally posted by fritz

I have to say that I agree with Retseh. I don't see anything special about this frigate dressed up as a destroyer which may or may not be armed with tomohawk cruise missiles.

No wonder our Navy is next to useless!

Type 45 is an AAW destroyer and was never going to get cruise missiles. That role in the RN sits with the subs and the future project which keeps changing... FSC, VSC, S2C2 or whatever. I think the RN has always called AAW ships destroyers.

Actually, I think Type 45 is a highly advanced ship. PAAMS is the mutts nuts. Look up the type's Key User Requiremnts. e.g.

Key UR 1 - "The T45 shall be able to protect with a Probability of Escaping Hit of xx, all units operating within a radius of 6.5km, against up to 8 supersonic sea skimming missiles arriving randomly within xx seconds".

REgards

paraphi, I was quoting from the Royal Navy's page about the Type 45. The exact quote is below:

The Type 45 could also accommodate cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk and anti-ballistic missiles if a requirement was identified in future. The Type 45 will be able to operate a helicopter up to the size of a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter, but will initally operate with Lynx HMA.8 helicopters armed with Stingray torpedoes.

That is why I wrote: 'I don't see anything special about this frigate dressed up as a destroyer which may or may not be armed with tomohawk cruise missiles'.