Royal Navy Looking for a Swan
The Royal Navy, seeing its numbers of surface combatants shrinking every day, has gone looking for a Swan.
During WWII, with hundreds of U-Boats chilling in the Atlantic and North Sea, they ran a series of what they called Sloops (referred to as destroyer escorts/corvettes in the US.) In the vein of quantity has a quality all its own, they operated in squadrons. Even of a wolf pack or surface raider picked off one or two, the other half dozen boats would survive to avenge their death.
These were the Black Swan class
Dimensions: Length – 299.5 feet (91.29m); Width – 37.5 feet (38.5 feet Modified) (11.43m(11,73m); Draught – 12 feet (3.5m); Displacement – 1,300 tons standard, 1770-1945 tons deep load; Modified- 1,350-1,490 tons standard; 1,880-1,950 tons deep load
Armament – Six 4-Inch/45 QF Mk XVI HA DP; Four 2pdr pompoms; Later 4-8 20mm Oerlikon 20mm AA guns; Later four 40mm Bofors AA guns; ASW fit increased during war, including addition to Hedgehogs in certain ships.
Machinery – Two shaft Parsons Geared Turbines; Two Admiralty 3-drum boilers; 4,300 shp; 19.75 knots maximum speed: Complement – 180
The 2012-Black Swan is the same concept.
The new paper that MOD has released is full of information.
They are to be built to commercial standards (SOLAS) which means they can survive minor collisions at sea and soft beach groundings with possible economic repair but not torpedoes, mines, or anti-ship missiles/naval gunfire. The paper mentions that they will have ” survivability through platform numbers” and the concept is that for Sea Control missions they would operate in squadrons of 4-6 ships commanded overall by a O-5 level officer.
Note the huge helicopter deck with a Merlin mock up. It borders on being able to operate a CH53-sized aircraft
Main Dimensions
Length overall 95.00m
Length (WL) 90m
Breadth (WL) 15.50m
Depth moulded 11.60m
Draft 4m
Tank capacities
Fuel oil 390 tonnes
Fresh water 24 tonnes
Additional fuel for Unmanned Systems 94 tonnes
Main Machinery
Speed and Range Generators 2 x Wartsila 8L201
1 x Wartsila 12V26
Top speed 18 knots
Range 10,000nm at 12kts
Propulsion 2 x 2MW disel electric motors
Deadweight and Draught
Deep Displacement 3150 tonne
Weapons (Fixed)
1 x 30mm gun
2 x GPMG2 x miniguns
Possible directed energy weapons/LRADs
Additional weapon systems could be carried in the mission bay, hangar or upper deck module positions. The ship will be able to re-role independently using a logistic supply system involving ISO-containerized mission modules and on board cranage.ISO containerized missile modules could be fitted on the upper deck with long-range land, air and surface capability. ISO containerized sensors such as towed array could also be included.
Basic complement
8 plus 32 mission
planners for total of 40 (HMS ASTUTE
standard) inside the CBRN citadel.
If you can operate 8 large rotary wing UAV’s like Firescout from one of these close to shore, that is littoral warfare!
Helicopter Accommodation
Flight deck Chinook ramp down
Hangar Merlin + 1 rotary wing UAV
Can operate as many as 8 Bell 206/Hughes 500 sized aircraft at once (OH-58/OH-6) if needed. This is thought to include large UAVs such as the USN’s Firescout.
A look at the mission bay
20-foot ISO container accommodation for at least 20 In mission bay
Total mission payload 400 tonnes.
It actually looks interesting and small navies as well as large ones (USN LCS ‘lite’/USCG OPC) may look towards it.