The OPVs have the capacity and a magazine below to accept a deck-penetrating gun such as this. They can also be weaponised by adding a pair of LMM Martlet missiles which could be used against small craft at distance if needed. Mounting this type of weapon that put adversaries large combat vessels at risk makes a bigger strategic statement. The navy might then, finally, have one vessel that reaches its full potential from the outset. I must say that having the .40 mm bofors seems a no brainer to me. A 40mm Bofors main armament would be great and a couple of bridge mounted 20mms with arcs to port and starboard would give a more than adequate punch. I don’t see the point of using Rivers for fisheries protection when far cheaper vessels could do this job just as well. ( Log Out / 40mm main gun, a pair of 30mm with Lmm on the waist and a fire control system backed by containerised rotary UAVs. Not saying not going to happen, but I think the situation is to change. A good example is the Scheibel Camcopter 100 which has an operating range of up to 180km from its control station and is capable of mission durations up to 6 hours. If that level of response cannot be delivered then the ship is in the wrong environment. Kelvin Hughes has been selected to supply its SharpEye radar system for the new Batch 2 River class offshore patrol vessels HMS Forth, HMS Medway, HMS Trent, HMS Tamar and HMS Spey. In this case, we get the remaining 1B GBP. I’d hope there’s a plan to turn them into corvettes quickly enough if there’s a war, but for now they are OPVs and should stay that way. Aside from fire control, it leaves everything else, flyco, firefighting, cranes etc in-situ. The article claims the Rivers are ‘lacking the space even for a compact towed array sonar’. However, the DS30 should be adequate to deal with slow moving helicopters or UAVs. The ships are significantly larger than the Island-class vessels and have a large open deck aft allowing them to be fitted with equipment for a specific role, which can include fire-fighting, disaster relief and anti-pollution work. The main issue is that it is still a traditional pulse doppler radar using either a conical fan or straight array antenna. In some ways perhaps the most successful acquisition of the last few decades. At the very least I’d want uparmed Rivers to have some anti-air missiles (and preferably in ADL launchers that can be replenished at sea). a means to take out a sub). A countermeasures system would be useful too. I would have thought a slightly scaled back weapons fit would be ideal for the Rivers. 4. NOT anti Submarine operations since even a T31 is going to struggle to operate in that environment. If it is the later it should not mean that the RN budget is cut. No one with any sense is going to put a fighter within range of a T45 on a real rather than demo scenario. Whilst in ideal world T31’s and other bigger ships would be doing this the reality is that we don’t have the numbers or crew or at sea days to cover everything. I don’t really see the point of the River OPVs. A Wildcat’s only of limited use for anti-sub warfare. Air burst is the poor mans indirect fire, something the 40mm is capable of. Here, when I say “6”, it means average 6 = sometimes 4, sometimes 8. Last time I looked the Arabian or Persian Gulf was a bit of cul-de-sac. “OPV Plus” includes a container based rotary wing UAS like the Schiebel Camcopter S100, two 30mm guns, a BAE Bofors 40mm/70 Mk4 with a possible fire control upgrades, and Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). With constrained resources, the RN already has to share some equipment between ships as they rotate in and out of high threat areas. 2023 -T23: no change, unmanned anyway. The majority of aircraft flying at sea level will be subsonic, so most could be fair game. It’s not well armed enough for anything else. It is likely one will go to Gibraltar and another to the SW Asia/Persian Gulf/Indian Ocean Area. More than twice longer than any escorts now. In addition to two 30mm guns with LMM Martlet missiles, and a BAE Bofors 57mm Mk110 and associated fire control system, it also adds an enlarged operations room (CIC), decoy launchers, and a multirole Artisan 3D radar. It has the capability for searching and tracking objects up to 6000ft at distances of 10 to 15 nm, depending on the objects size and RCS. Could they be pressed into service on say 3 of the batch 2 Rivers modified with a telescopic hangar? If an Oerlikon Millennium Gun would fit on the front where the current Bushmaster is all the better. We have already seen this done to a, There is some indication that the Thais will attempt to, They do fisheries, SAR, and drug enforcement, but they are looking to use them for a bit more. They will be replaced by five new River Class ‘Batch 2’ boats. The earlier vessels built for Trinidad and Tabago and later sold to Brazil were armed this way, but the British ships are not. The 40mm has a maximum range against surface targets of 12.5km, which is pretty well the horizon when viewed from an OPV. The only thing Rivers could realistically be uparmed for is to deal with fast attack craft in areas where there are no subs and no anti-ship missiles. That said the OPV Plus in the article does have a lot to commend it, maybe go a little south of that: if the 30mm was kept where it is but the LMMs are added to it, and a spot found suitable for firing Starstreak and whatever the in service ATGM is these days covering the forward arc and another firing spot for the same weapons covering aft, along with LRAD and some decoy launchers – the latter fitted for but not with – then you would have the best you could do under the circumstances. I can’t go in jeans and a sweatshirt, so I just tried my old suit on. So what does the Government want the MoD and the RN to do with these ships. Especially if it is from all points of the compass The 40mm has only 100 rounds unless there is deck penetration (even then its manual reload so the firing rate would drop off). The helicopter is nearly as important at sea at the ship. A total of nine were built for the Royal Navy (RN), four Batch 1 and five Batch 2. One is currently deployed to the South Atlantic operating out of the Falklands and a second is tasked with operations upholding UK interests in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Western North Atlantic. spare Artisan 3Ds from the Type 23s. We have a situation where we cannot yet man all of our destroyers and frigates, and the condition of some of those frigates is questionable as to whether it offers value for money to refurbish them for the small number of years service they have left. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Type 31 has no CAMMs at all once it’s built so it can come in on budget. If the NSM is chosen as the ISSM then it will be a comparatively light weight addition and its IIR guidance system well suited to littoral warfare and would provide a useful land attack capability. Don’t forget that River B1 was VT (as was) clever plan to make the RN/MoD an offer it couldn’t refuse to replace the Island class, not so much the Castles (that was Clyde). 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