N_a_B - while I sympathise with you views on the likely out come of such a plan, BAES was reported as offering such an option late last year. Navantia had previous made an unsolicited proposal for an ASW vessel to replace the late Hunters. There has been a lot of politicing going on - optimisation for one role, not enough missiles, absence of effective land strike capability, integrating AEGIS etc. (as not adopting INTeACT). Much flowing from Vice Adm. William Hilarides (USN rtd)'s study.
https://www.australiandefence.com.au...unter-proposal
(reported 02 November 2023)
BAE Systems Australia is offering an up-armed, evolved version of the Hunter class frigate to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as a way of rapidly increasing the firepower of the surface fleet. BAE argues that their proposal, which effectively replaces the Hunter class mission bay with additional missile tubes, offers an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, approach to delivering additional capability to the RAN.
Craig Lockhart, Managing Director at BAE Systems Australia, described the proposal as the “closest thing to off the shelf” available to Australia. The concept, which BAE is proposing for Batch II of the class, uses the space allocated for the mission bay on the Hunter class to insert 64 Mk41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) and 16 Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) into the ship for a total of 96 VLS cells.
If the RAN elected to remove the 5 inch Mk 45 gun, Lockhart said, it would enable the VLS count to grow even more to 128 cells – which surpasses even the United States Navy’s (USN) Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruisers. According to BAE the up-armed, Batch II Hunter, maintains 85% commonality with the existing ships that are under construction at Osborne, South Australia. The most significant difference is the removal of the Thales Sonar 2087 towed array and various other unspecified Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) systems.
It would also involve “minor” changes to the ship’s propulsion and power systems to accommodate for the increased top weight of the high-mounted VLS cells.
The proposed modifications would have a “minimal” impact on cost and a “negligible” impact on schedule so long as build of the modified design commenced with Batch II, rather than Batch I ships, Lockhart said.