Pioneer said:
Volkodav said:
Thanks for that, I hadn't seen a lot of those before.
Interesting isn't it that the full blown corvette wasn't far short of an ANZAC / MEKO 200 ANZ patrol frigate in capability. It would have been intriguing to see an ASMD type upgrade (CAEFAR, VAMPIR, upgraded SAAB combat system) on the platform, had it proceeded.
Yes, you make an interesting point
Volkodav!
I very much think much money and capability was lost on the politics of the ANZAC class frigates as half-hearted acquisitions. For although capable designs in practice, they were negated their true capabilities and used as glorified patrol frigates as such (until both the RAN and government's realised the Oliver Hazard Perry's would need complementing/replacement) - this is underlined by they're years of adequate weapons fit, including combat capable helicopters.
I'm still of the opinion that the RAN could have/should have had corvette sized OPV no greater than 70-75m design. Pity, and costly exercise which still hasn't been resolved.
Regards
Pioneer
When initially planned the ANZACs were meant to be to be part of an increase in numbers and a switch in priority from primary ASW to a more anti surface slant, i.e. the Penguin requirement for the planned shipboard helicopter for the ANZACs and corvettes.
Escort numbers, though consistently planned to be around twenty, with or without carrier(s), were rarely ever more than a dozen post war. With the retirement of Melbourne they were planned to increase to 17, nine tier 1 (DDGs and FFGs), eight tier 2 (patrol frigates) and about a dozen tier 3 (corvettes). With nine (later reduced to eight then four and finally three) guided missile destroyers and frigates that as a minimum would have been replaced by FFGs with an equivalent to NTU standard and hence, at the time, second only to AEGIS in capability, twenty ships (eight PFs and 12 corvettes) with ESSM, Harpoon and helicopters armed with Penguin would have been more than adequate.
The problem wasn't so much that bigger, better, ships should have been acquired than the ANZACs, or even that a smaller number of more specialised (ASW) ships acquired as a one for one replacement for the River class, but rather that the more capable replacements for the DDGs and FFGs didn't eventuate, forcing the ANZACs to fill roles they were never intended too. They were more than adequate for what they were intended for and, as has been shown, could be upgraded extensively, the problem was the timely replacement of the DDGs and the US built FFGs was cancelled, while the FFGUP, that was intended to cover the gap between the retirement of the DDGs and the arrival of their eventual replacements, went way over budget and schedule and was cut back to only four ships. This meant the workload and roles meant to be covered by fourteen major and twelve minor combatants instead was left to the eight ANZACs plus Adelaide and Canberra with the Fremantles being useless and the Armidales worse than useless, they were dangerous.
What made things worse was when the government cancelled the corvettes and deferred the DDG/FFG replacement it was on the assumption that the required capability would be filled by six upgraded FFGs and eight ANZAC WIPs (ANZACs upgraded with AEGIS SYS-1F and SM-2). They thought they could get away with not having to order any new combatants until the 2010s, the impossibility of ANZAC WIP plus the wakeup call of Timor resulted in the belated kick off of the AWD program at the time the government was starting to realise that the FFGUP was in trouble too, throw in the problems with the Super Sea Sprite and MU-90 and the RAN was in serious trouble.
The ANZACs were trying to do everything while most of the FFGs were tied up in the troubled FFGUP, the AWDs were years away and the Perths long retired, whoops. Add in the troubles with the Armidales that have led to their early replacement, the damage done to the AWD program by letting Australian shipbuilding whither, as well as the chaos caused by letting obsolescence of the fleet come to a head in the 2010s I just can't help but wonder if would have been cheaper to have built the corvettes after the ANZACs as planned and maybe three or four Flight IIA Burkes in the 2000s without FFGUP, then spend the 2010s replacing the amphibs and tankers before moving to an ANZAC replacement in the 2020s.
