HMS Daring eases through first sea trials
 

From the Telegraph today:

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Daring is crowned by a huge 30-metre high Samson radar that can track more than 1,000 targets at once.

The system is so powerful it can monitor all take-offs and landings from every major European airport within 200 miles of Portsmouth.

The ship can engage 12 air targets and will carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Officers claim that if it was stationed in the River Thames, its weapon system would be able to single-handedly destroy any incoming airborne attack on Greater London.

HMS Darling
 

And while it's shooting down cricket balls the crew can listen to their ipods too!:ok:

:hmm:

The Telegraph also says that BAE says that American visitors to the yard on the Clyde were left shocked and shaken. The newspaper desists from developing these heady emotions further so the reader has no idea whether they were prompted by envy, horror, disgust or satisfaction. Perhaps the Americans are perturbed at the fact that the Aster missile system, on which the T45 will be so heavily dependent, and London too by all accounts, is a French system with the major shareholder, either through the Thales group or through MBDA, being the French government?:hmm:

I might sound cynical, but its rucksacks we need to detect right now.

Peter,
Yes I agree entirely. Can't help think that the money could be so much better spent where it's needed at the moment, and that aint on the high seas, or up the Thames!!
TSM

She's the first of how many? Twelve?

Oh NO! That's how many we were supposed to be getting. Is it 6 now? Or 4? I forget.

Changing defence needs, people! The world's changing, and apparently we don't need as much defence...

:mad:

Daring Class
 

Defending London.....the RN will be hard pressed to release one of their four Daring Class vessels to defend London when they have 2 carriers to protect.

Having said that, the RN will probably only have enough people to operate one carrier at a time, so the bean counters will see that as a means of knocking back the orders for more of these vessels.

Hope they get them though

How do you safely get forward from aft & vice versa in a fire? :suspect: No upper deck.

I see she is so good that they reported it twice.

Quote:

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It is also the most eco-friendly ship ever produced for the Royal Navy, with a unique electric propulsion system that can ferry it from New York and back without refuelling.

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Interesting starting point.

Quote:

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Officers claim that if it was stationed in the River Thames, its weapon system would be able to single-handedly destroy any incoming airborne attack on Greater London.

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So long as the threat doesn't number more than 12 simultaneously and 48 total. Please do not read that as a criticism of the ship, though.

"Gannic Squadron, Hundred Plus at Angels two-five. Vector one two zero. Watch out for Snappers."

Well in 1940 they only had 12 aircraft to a squadron and they managed all right... :hmm:

I have a vision of a giant Freddie Trueman lobbing cricket balls at London, being fired at by this ship like some King Kong type figure:ok:

They didn't mention losing the hook then? Or not being able to run the "most eco-friendly propulsion system" (the Great White Turbine & an out of production baby DG) in it's designed mode then? Or the somewhat abbreviated 4.5" shoot.

Ho-hum........

I suspect that the T45 is very much like Typhoon in that short sighted individuals like TSM and TE view it as merely a Cold War asset with no relevance to modern ops.
They need to open their minds a little to realise how valuable such assets as the T45 are in modern ops, particularly when Iran could potentially make life very difficult if they wished to take a more active part in the Gulf waters.
T45 is relevant and it's good to see the dark blue getting some very long overdue replacements for the T42s.
MM

Daring Performance
 

Beeb News item this morning quoted nought-30(ish) Kts in less than a minute. That impressed me!

CM

Boffin, I was under the (probably mistaken) impression that the electric drive pods were for berthing etc like on , I think, QE2?

I notice that the crew has Ipod chargers, so that's all right then, no more blubbing.:E

how high?
 

Also from the factfile summary:

Size: Five times higher than Nelson’s column. The ship’s 20,000 power cables stretch 400 miles.

:confused:

;)

The ship’s 20,000 power cables stretch 400 miles.

Does that mean it then has to turn around and head back to port ?





'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

Is that why so many open spaces appeared in the centre of London then?

Just come off the sea trials and probably the best ever undertaken by any new RN ship. A speed of 31knts and some superb tight manouveres - not quite low level, fast jet standards but impressive all the same.

The PAAMS system trials come later, there is still some way to go before Daring enters service with RN.

Original talk was of a class of 12 Type 45's but this reduced to eight. Six are on contract although, the recent CSR statement in parliament mentioned that a fleet of eight remained in the long-term plan.

Relatively low level flypasts by a Nimrod MRA4 off the west coast of Scotland yesterday as Daring was heading home. Hopefully pics, taken from the air and deck, will make an appearance soon.