The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the Multi-Role Support Ship (MRSS) programme, intended to replace the Royal Navy’s current amphibious fleet, is progressing through its concept phase, with the first vessel expected to enter service by 2033.
Please note that the image above is illustrative and not representative of any choice for the ship’s design.
Responding to questions in Parliament, Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, outlined the timeline and purpose of the programme. She stated:
“The Multi-Role Support Ship programme will recapitalise the Royal Navy’s amphibious fleet, which consists of the three Bay class landing ships (RFA Lyme Bay, Mounts Bay, and Cardigan Bay) and RFA Argus, which provides medical and aviation support. These vessels are planned to leave service by 2034, with MRSS intended to replace them.”
The MRSS programme is designed to ensure the continuity of the Royal Navy’s amphibious capabilities, including global deployment and support for the Royal Marines.
HMS Albion and Bulwark Decommissioning
The confirmation comes amid discussions about the early retirement of HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. According to Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defence, their decommissioning will not impact the operational capabilities of the Royal Marines, as they are currently held at lower readiness. Pollard noted:
“Both are currently held at lower readiness, having not been to sea since 2023 and 2017 respectively. This Government inherited a position where neither was due to go to sea again before their planned out-of-service dates of 2033 and 2034.”
The Royal Marines will continue to be supported by the Bay-class ships and RFA Argus until the MRSS fleet comes into service.
Funding and Timeline
The MRSS programme is funded from the Defence budget, enabling the Royal Navy and Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) to undertake detailed preparatory work. Eagle stated:
“The programme aims to deliver the first of class by 2033. This timeline remains on track to meet operational requirements.”
Bad timing. Losing amphibious assault capability just when Russia threatens the arctic northern flank of NATO and China via President Xi has openly declared they will rejoin Taiwan with the CCCPs China by 2030.
That’s a confirmed timeframe and means the RN will have a limited role in helping to defend our allies in the far east when China will be launching a war of conquest.
Then again, not much ROYAL could bring to a bun fight with China, RN, the Astutes but the projected American losses are horrendous, even given their numbers; would you really want us to see our boats being sunk, given our woeful numbers?
Another capability gone before replacement , I wonder what the RMs think about having Bay class and Argus has stand in till 2033 🤔 🇬🇧
From first hand feedback they are not particularly pleased. In reality the RM have been loosing experienced people for a while and the gapping on the last few trips on board Albion was evidence of that. The RN leadership have focused on the carriers so the RM headcount is less important to them indeed it allows them to recruit more matelots, which has been a failure.
The RM are now limited in capability and in no way do the Bays make up for the loss of the LPDs.
Bays will do the job for years to come. RM isn’t orbatted to deploy in the size it used to be. The bay class has been used for many years in lieu of Albion/Bulwark, even with a much larger footprint.
What capability limits do the RM currently face?
Sorry but Albion was only decommissioned at the end of last year and up to 2018 the Bays supported her and Ocean so no the Bays have not being doing the jobs for years and they can’t.
Legally they are not combatants and they have little or Command and Control capability, limited ship to shore vessels and are merchant ships not fit for frontline Ops. Humanitarian aid missions and limited Ops with little or no threat is what they can do. In any other scenario they are not fit for the purpose.
That significantly limits some of our best forces ability to provide the impact we may require.
Sjb1968. You don’t know much about the Bay class. The command and control centres of the Bay Class have been extensibly upgraded since they were built and RFA personnel are now sponsored reserves so if the time comes to be involved in war, the personnel become reservists.
RFA crewed not RN personnel as well a crew not under KRRNs and able too strike ,
Bays and Argus work + Argus has a proper fight deck!!!!
Good. Taiwan is not an ally so it is not our fight. There are plenty of countries in the area which,in combination with the US, can oppose any Chinese aggression. We should concentrate our resources against the nearer and more immediate threat of Russia.
In due course, AUKUS will make a contribution in the Far East, mainly through increased SSN numbers.
I think we will support the Aussies in that fight and I can see the Royals spending more time down under as they have done this year. The fact they will be based on RAN vessels will just reflect our loss of capability.
The idea of deploying an SSN to the pacific is laughable given we currently have 5 and we are struggling to get some off the wall because we have inadequate maintenance facilities and crew. We will be lucky to get up to 7 operational boats before the end of the decade. Any increase above those numbers will be nearing the 2040’s.
We have committed to basing an Astute out in SUF-West from 2027. By my reasoning that will most likely be the last build Astute.
She is due to stay out there for at least 5 years, so it will be a plum draft as it includes a married and accompanied element.
Of course, the present clowns in Westminster could change all of that, but, I believe that that is unlikely as it impacts on the whole AUKUS deal.
I am just not sure we will have a boat available without leaving the U.K. without any SSN cover at all. Mind you that’s what happened recently anyway so obviously our politicians aren’t bothered.
You could say the same thing of Ukraine, but we still had to suffer double digit inflation and pay I don’t know how many billions subsidising fuel prices. A war over Taiwan will be everybody’s business.
Strategically Taiwan is very much our fight. The majority of the world’s high end chips are manufactured in Taiwan. If China retakes it the shock to the high end computer and telecommunications would be devastating.
As well as the implications for world order and embolden other dictators.
The key to defending Taiwan is to not let them onto the island in the first place and turn the South China Sea into Iron Bottom Sound 2.0.
As to UK staying out, that will also depend if it spills over into the SCS. There are defence guarantees with Malaya, Singapore & Brunei, along with British troops stationed in Brunei. There is also the possibility that SCS kicks off first, rather than Taiwan. Taiwan is expected to be a planned action, SCS going off may not be.
The Five Power agreements with Malaysia and Singapore ( together with Australia and NZ) are to consult in the case of aggression. They are not mutual defence commitments like NATO article 5.
Even in 1941, the RN, still the world’s largest, was unable to act effectively in the South Western Pacific. Given the current size of the fleet, any contribution now would be little more than token.
You can say it is not your fight but then Japan will ask you about the Tempest… Australia will ask you about AUKUS…
And if China attack mainland US article 5 means it becomes our fight
And in a U.S. China war, china will attack the continental US, its part of chinas paradigm of war fighting, make the enemies population suffer.
On a more positive note HMS Defender is apparently in dock getting it’s CAMM silos fitted, I guess that is the only benefit of scrapping our frigates before their replacement is ready we’ve got a lot of spare CAMM missiles “mushroom farms” available.
Ideally these would be transferred to the T31’s
The T23 ‘mushroom farms’ as they now appear to be named are zero use on anything else as they are bodge into the Sea Wolf launchers.
All of the new RN vessels *graphics* use the standard six pack CAMM launchers.
Do we know what the six pack launchers seen on RN renders actually are? Are they 2 x Lockheed Martin 3-cell EXLS quad packed to give 24 x CAMM (I believe some other CAMM users are buying EXLS to host their CAMM) or is there some other MOTS launcher for CAMM, or even a custom design of a six pack launcher for the RN?
It’s just single shot CAMM cells arranged in a 2×3
The CAMM-ER launchers in Pakistan corvettes still have the appearance of mushrooms.
Any idea if the MRSS are going to be RN or RFA ships?
RFA
4 RFA 2 RN is my bet but only if you grow the RFA because at present they don’t have the bodies.
So the Bays and Argus are due to leave service in 2034, but the first MRSS is due in 2033. I very much doubt the remainder will be ready before 2034, so does that mean yet more capability gaps? What hope does Argus have of making it to 2034 I wonder.
The RN will have operated just 4 ships, that are at least in part providing amphibious support, for a minimum of 10 years. Now lets guess how many MRSS will be ordered.
Yes, I did wonder about Argus making it to that venerable vintage.
Sure, she was super well built with c very thick high quality plate and has been very well looked after.
She was in Corporate in ‘82 so she would be over 50 years in RN service by 2034! She wasn’t new then….
It was almost new. From wiki:
Società Italiana Ernesto Breda at Marghera
Yard number 293
Launched 28 November 1980
Completed 31 July 1981
Argus is immortal!
Must be something in the name as the Flat Iron gave sterling service.
My understang is that the T23 have a distinctive Mushroom farm appearance as the camm silos were fitted inside the old vls seawolf tubes, and they are taller than the old tubes, hence the extended domed covers. As far as I am aware these are non-transferable.
AA
Correct
Only a 8 year gap in capacity…infact the 8 year gap in which we probably have the highest risk of a global war since 1962.
What I really want to hear is how are the proposed 6 MRSS going to be crewed. One of the big picture issues that everyone seems to ignore is that the Albions were commissioned warships, the RFA vessels are not. In international law that’s very significant as only commissioned warships my take belligerent actions.
Infact the RFA vessels are first and foremost logistic vessels designed to ferry troops to a controlled landing site..the launching of an amphibious attack from the bay class potentially puts the British state and the crew in a very uncomfortable legal position.
“Until the rule changes, U.S. Navy auxiliaries have been intentionally designed and utilized to perform only supporting tasks which fall well within current legal norms. These include providing logistical support, or serving as air or seaborne launch pads to transport troops and ammunition. But there is an increasing desire to expand the functions which auxiliaries can execute, including electronic attack, intelligence collection, command and control, and mine countermeasures. To the extent these and other missions could be construed as belligerent acts, the current rule straitjackets auxiliaries in armed conflict. As the potential list of activities performed by auxiliaries expands, the legal restriction against belligerent acts by auxiliaries has imposed an unnecessary hurdle in operational planning and execution.” ( CIMSEC 2019).
There is a real legal danger to this, as essentially another nation could take the crew of an auxiliary acting in a belligerent role as outside of the protection of the rules of law and executive them.
“even armed merchant ships ordered by a belligerent government to attack enemy submarines (i.e. ships that had arguably been converted into warships) did so at considerable legal risk. One British merchant ship captain trying to ram a German submarine was subsequently executed by the Germans as an illegal combatant.”
Essentially moving the UK first line amphibious forces away from commissioned warships manned by the RN to RFA auxiliaries is an area of real legal jeopardy for the UK and RFA..does anybody doubt that Iran, china or Russia would not execute a British RFA captain in wartime or massively heightened tension if there was way to do so within the international rules of law.
The last statement from a senior officer described MRSS as “large non complex warships”. That would seem to imply building them in UK and RN crews. With manning problems in both RN and RFA, who knows
Putting aside the legalities of using the Bays as warships their practical use in amphibious warfare is very limited. Inadequate Command and Control capability, minimal ship to shore vessels and most importantly they are not built to warship standards.
A recipe for a suicide mission unless we are talking about a humanitarian aid mission with minimal hostile actors. The U.K. is basically out of the amphibious warfare scene for at least a decade in which time undoubtedly a Government minister will ask where are our Amphibious Assault Ships ?
The best amphibious warfare troops on the planet have been kneecapped.
Indeed because they are logistic ships, not amphibious assault ships…designed and built as auxiliaries to transport troops and supplies. For many of the missions they are fine, such as reinforcement of an ally..for belligerent amphibious actions they are not equipped and not legally supported.
In reality it was fine to scrap Albion, but bulwark should have been kept in service until 2033.
Absolutely agree with you. Why we would scrap Bulwark is beyond me but I suspect she will be sold to Brazil to raise a few million £.
It wasn’t even okay to scrap Albion because of what might have been found on refitting Bulwark in 2029.
I don’t disagree with you but she was totally stripped of kit in late 23 and early 24. It would have to be of been a 1982 scenario for her to be brought back. A sad and unnecessary loss.
To be honest Jon, everyone knows there was no coming back for Albion, stripped and left in extended readiness for 7-8 years..would have meant a massive refit cost for a few years service..better to have just carefully managed bulwark until 2033.
To be honest I don’t think the navy wanted her back, they wanted the crew for 2 carrier crews to operatate both carriers as much as possible. if they were going to run Bulwark they would have needed to put one of their carriers away ( as they were always mean to do) and run with one full carrier crew and one partial crew,
All RFA in the area will be RN SPONSERVED RESERVES so if thats activated.guess what!
NO they are sponsored reserves – in time of hostilites this allows HMG to place them in harmes way at a fraction of the cost to Double Bubble as they used to get but they will be under the NDA.
As these things go that is actually a very fast timeline.
So where do they get built? They will need to start building in 2-3 years given the glacial pace of UK shipbuilding?
Solids stores has Belfast [theoretically] full over this period.
T26/T83 has BAE occupied. Particularly us Norwegian T26 comes off which we all hope it does.
So that leaves Babcock doing these?
Or can they build in one of the Rosyth dry docks? As they built QEC. These are going to be very big lumps that won’t fit in the frigate sheds.
So the next issue is workforce unless T32 is binned and the T31 team moves straight to this?
That means the frigate shed isn’t making frigates but blocks?? Which seems a waste…
Unless I have missed something? Which I may well have done!
Lairds? Or built abroad. Admittedly neither seem likely choices for different reasons. Maybe a combination, with Lairds/AP building blocks and Damen assembling.
From what i understand, Lairds is building blocks for other RN projects and a ferry.
Is there an outside possibility that the dry docks at Gibraltar could be used in collaboration with BAE, /Babcock?
Hi SB I can’t see how it can be done at Rosyth due to the QE dry docking issue, all our eggs are in that one single basket. Besides which it is supposedly working “at pace” on T31 (tongue firmly in cheek 🥴) and also getting ready for their part in decommissioning the old SSN/SSBN boats. Also we need to remember that the QE class were assembled not built at Rosyth, and the yards that built those blocks are all busy at present.
IMHO the only logical alternative is to sort out the H & W problem and turbo charge the FSS build, after all they are actually more desperately needed than the MRSS ! It’s crazy to ignore the simple fact that we have one of the finest facilities in Europe in Belfast, building dock, Gantry cranes, block halls and a huge Dry Dock with 24/7/365 access.
Unfortunately it is mired in quagmire of complexities, one of which is the reluctance of any U.K company to take it on due to the 4 day working week in place there. The workforce just will not budge on that issue, which baffles me as if it goes pop they will only get SR terms and be unemployed.
I see so many comments on here about why can’t BAe or Babcock take over H&W, but given how employee relations work in U.K. they will avoid it like the plague whilst the workforce will not harmonise with other yards.
Navantia will do it but want a Kings ransom and you can pretty well guarantee the high value work being done in Spain.
And it grieves me to say this but I’d actually let the present H&W situation implode and let the administrators wind it up (that negates the contact with Navantia). Then move the FSS build to South Korea (use the Tide contract as a blue print), meanwhile Nationalise the Yard, appoint a company with experience to manage the contract but with a workforce that has same working arrangements as the rest of U.K. Yards. And then get them to final outfit the FSS and get ready to build the MRSS.
Government has agreed to the Navantia taking over H&W and for Navantia to renegotiate the contract with £300m being sighted as additional costs to the MoD. Considering saving H&W would have cost nothing unless the company went under as it was only a loan guarantee, and now H&W has published its accounts for 2023 which looked pretty solid with increased revenues the government looking pretty stupid right now!
I’m afraid you are right.
The Scottish yards seem to be in tune on this but H&W union conveners need a long cold shower and to wake up. This is not the end of lockdown with a crazed labour market etc. We have people emailing us speculatively looking for work ATM which tells me the bubble has burst.
The idea of a 4 day week making things is nuts as the yard overheads are still for all seven days. The other problem is that you need 20% more headcount to operate the yard.
That said Barrow didn’t do too much on Fridays not so long ago….all the expensive cars in the car parks were gone by 12:00 on a Friday – leaving a lot of empty tarmac! I used to be able to see the car park….I didn’t need any special insight to understand working patterns there!!!
Thats the problem when you feast and famine your shipbuilding industry, you end up without the capacity and then use foreign yards..which reduces your capacity even more..death spiral.
Oh well could always ask the Scottish “government” to build a few ferries and transport the RM around in them. Be novel along with using SNP funded camper vans as beach transport.
“expected to enter service by 2033” ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Yeah, first T26 takes 10 years to build but MRSS of there is no project yet will be build in less than 9.
Yes and yet the rest of Europe is build its large modern escorts in around 5 years….
Does anyone know what specs the MRSS are being designed to. From my view point it seems that there are three possible types for the MRSS.
1. The Ellida type, but that is only good if the ship has two RAS postions and could be used as a stores and fuel ship if she is not needed for Royal Marines. She should have the capacity for 250 Marines and their equipment, workshops a 100 bed hospital with ICU, CT scan, X-ray and 3 operating theatres. As these ships are likly to be forward deployed for extended periods of time and act a base ship for other in theatre assets then further accommodation and recreaction facilities would be needed.
2. The HMAS Canberra type vessel. These would be the more classical type for amphibious forces and more ‘fighty’. They would not be forward deployed and would need a surface ship escort. However, they would be able to land anything up to a battalion size battle group with their own airsupport over the beach if need be. These ships could also act as ASW helicopter platforms, baby escort carriers for convoys and uav/uuv/rov motherships. Again they would need workshops and hospital facilities.
3. The stretched T31 or Damen Crossover Combattant type vessel. These are for all intents and purposes frigates that are able to carry and land 100-120 Marines with their equipment. This is the type of ship that I could see becoming the T32, with a multi mission bay very much like the T26, a mission deck with stern access able to launch three lcvps/cb-90s and two Merlin helicopters. These ships would be very useful for the small incursion. task. With a 5 inch gun two blocks of Mk41s forward, 24 CAMMs midships, two sets of NSM, two 40mm and two Phalanx they would be more than capable of looking after themselves. They would help push up surface combat ship numbers. These ships would lack the endurance to stay on station for long periods of time. However, if they were combined with a vessel from 1 or 2 then they could become a part of a very flexible independent littoral response group.
I am not sure what is the best solution for the RN from type 1 or 2, for pure fighting capability I prefer the LHD type vessel also the flight deck gives the RN some flexibility in use as I said if they worked with two T26s that is a ASW hunter group for the N.Atlantic, or in the escort carrier role for important convoys from the US to Europe. This type of vessel cannot stay on station for long periods. The Ellida type is a vessel that can stay on station for long periods, they could also be used for forward deployed stores and fuel, forward deployed workshops, forward deployed recreation facilities to give frigate crews a break in a secure area and have a good hospital. These ships would also be very useful in the humanitarian role.
If I could I would have a mix of all three but that seems unlikly due to cost. So as much as I am going to hate myself for it I would take three Ellida type ships and six stretched T31s to form three littoral response groups. These three Ellidas would be RN and a further 3-4 Ellida’s to replace the Bays and Argus for the RFA. If money was not an issue I would have two LHDs, four Ellida’s and eight stretched T31s. This would cover just about every form of flexibility required forming two littoral task groups (1 Ellida plus 2 stretched T31s), two amphibious tasks groups (1 LHD, 1 Ellida and 2 stretched T31s).
Only funding for 3 vessels with 6 as an unfunded aspiration.
Most likely somewhere between an LSDa and LPD, certainly not an LHD or a heavily armed ship
If it was me I’d keep it simple and go for the latest Damen Enforcer design, we know it is flexible, is reliable and reasonably cheap to build and as it isn’t a “Warship” it can be straight RFA.
I thought these were supposed to be capable of operating independently and defending themselves? That would seem to be at odds with the “non complex warships” description.
Through deck is vital to future proof them. Drones will be a massive part of the mix with regards weaponry going forwad
Zero chance of a through deck design
All good ideas. But where some doubts creep in is the bigger picture.
Fine to have Albions, Bays and Argus when the task was, if required, to land 5,000.troops of 3 Cdo Bde on a beach somewhere. That is no longer a practical tasking. The 5,000 has been reduced to not much over 1000, and even that is split into two smaller raiding units operating thousands of miles apart.
The case for an extravagant build of specialist warships to put a small packet of Marines ashore for a limited raid, has to be questionnable; there are many other urgent equipment projects with perhaps a better claim.
Don’t know the answer. A ship with a well dock for the fast LCC raiding craft and maybe a couple of LVUs, with a flight deck and hangar for probably 4 Merlins and 2-3 Apaches, accomodation for maybe 300 Marines and with good air and missile defences, would seem about right. But at what cost and would it be justifiable balanced against what a small raiding party might achieve?
HMAS Canberra cost close to £1b – more now, so I think there is zero chance of UK opting for a similar design. We do know that discussions with the Netherlands on a possible common design were ended because the two countries wanted something different, RN aim was for a larger vessel than the Dutch wanted.
The big question to be decided is the balance between well deck and aviation capabilities. The America class started with no well deck, maximizing aviation capacity. Later ships in the class are built with well decks.
Maybe an updated version of Ocean would provide an adequate mix of air and sea delivery as well as a platform flexible enough for other roles?
We don’t have enough aircraft to justify an Ocean, or the crew to operate one
The Minister’s statement is that MRSS will replace four existing ships. This implies a maximum of four units, more likely three.
Like I said, easy way to hide a cut in numbers
Sadly that is where we are heading.
What a pitiful sleight of hand. Keep true to the MRSS program goal of a 1 for 1 replacement for current vessels but cut the numbers from 6 to 4. How to square that circle? Easy (for a government minister). Retire 2 of the current vessels early (Albion and Bulwalk), wait long enough for most people not paying attention to forget that they ever existed, and then announce the next stage of the MRSS program that is indeed still going to deliver a 1 for 1 replacement for current vessels but now there are only 4 vessels to be replaced (3 x Bays and Argus) rather than the 6 when the MRSS concept was first announced. And sadly I suspect most of the public fall for this stuff because they just aren’t interested enough in defence to have followed the tricky little twists and turns along the way and will just see 4 older ships being replaced by 4 shiny new ships (assuming we even get to that number of MRSS).
Alas I have to agree, looks like sleight of hand to cut the number of MRSS from 6 to 4.
S.O.P for HMG and the MoD.
The headline in the article is misleading. From the content of the article, there is absolutely no commitment to replace the navy’s “assault ship” capability. What the Albion-class provided is far beyond what the RFA vessels provide.
The statement also implies that Bulwark was rusting away as she had not been to sea since 2017. That is also misleading and what is totally left out is the fact that the 72 million already spent on her refit was to ensure that she was in fact deployable – at least for the remainder of the decade.
Far from being a commitment to replace Britain’s assault ship capability, the statement is a clear indication that the MRSS concept has already been cut from six vessels second-rate vessels to perhaps four, and probably even fewer.
surely the core question for MRSS in terms of design isnt about marines per se, but about to what extent you want it to be able to offer them UAS support since decisions around this issue determine if you want to give it a full flight deck or not. It would certainly be a nice to have for marines to know that long endurance or high payload drones were overhead when they were ashore, but they have to come from somewhere. If these are to operate away from the carriers then a key early decision will be whether they will need to operate larger UAS.
Surface and subsurface drones are more straightforward for this type of vessel i think. And a helicopter flightdeck will handle rotary UAV. The issue is around more conventional takeoff/ landing (and larger) UAVs perhaps?
Given the importance of airborne support for amphibious ops then the need to accommodate helicopters and eventually drones is crucial. If the ships are large then for me their reaches a point where about above 20,000t a thru deck becomes a good choice, which brings us back to selecting a simple LHD solution.
The trouble starts here because of the sensitivity in the RN and within political circles of having more carriers!
Part of the politics in building the Albions as LPDs was to avoid having two 20,000+ LHDs that looked similar to the Invincible’s. The fear and not unwarranted was this would lead to one or more of the Invincible’s being discarded as we don’t need 5 carriers.
Putting the hangar deck in the Albions was then subsequently deleted to save money and a cheap LPH designed with two planned and one built.
If we built say 4 small LHDs then in the bean counters and politicians minds you have 6 carriers. Those with more in depth knowledge know differently but it is an issue.
So the RN had no recruitment plan that allowed them to crew Albion or Bulwar within a > 10 year timeframe ?
That’s attrocious.
Seeing that the current cut to amphibious capability are actually less than 0.0017% of the defence budget and yet Healy just rolled over!!! How will he fight for these hulls which will be bigger % of the budget. Sorry but current performance is not giving me any confidence, if growth falters and Reaves asks for cuts it looks like Healy will capitulate.
He’s as hopeless as all the rest.
The reality is the assault ships won’t likely be replaced with anything. Period. The RN will end up with a couple of supply ships out of necessity.
I guess it comes down to wanting aircraft carriers or floating gin palaces as l call them. The Arctic and North Atlantic are the priority, as part of Nato. And the tools to do that job are obvious. Submarines, landing ships and well armed frigates.
MRSS will be built if HMT allows additional funding. If built, it will need to take account of lack of personnel within the RN and RFA and be simple to maintain and operate without regular contractor assistance and in a hostile operating area. There needs to be a serious discussion their operational tempo. At present the LSDA’s are VFM but lack comms and amphibious command functions. They are slower in comparison to the LPD’s but they are cheaper to run, crew, better off a breach or in confined water as they are part DP and more flexible in terms of tasking. What type of FD do you wish? Multi spot requiring a flyco or Single spot without? This brings me to what do you do about RFA Argus and level of medical services required? Do you use one of the FSS’s with a role PCRS 2 capability or design a modular system that could be fitted to an MRSS or FSS? My thought is yes if money allows build MRSS but have 2/3 smaller ones and 2/3 bigger ones, all DP and cable of interchange of mission using mission bays, that means modular hospital capability and flexible FD decks. All need decent comms suit and command capability. I stress to all, don’t sell yourselves on artist pictures and various designs that have been touted over the last 3 years, they are all flawed. Finally on a building, should HMG actually agree and fund them properly, it needs to be a yard with providence. That may mean building abroad which is OK as long as you take into account the equipment fit and through life capability and its funding.
Lack of personnel. We have massive numbers of unemployed and however they are hiding things this is soaring. There is no problem finding people willing to serve unless you are determined to ensure you recruiting the correct number of people who identify as three legged four head purple martians. The number of applicants for roles in the armed forces, despite the clear indications it will be temporary and if you have to shoot an enemy you will be prosecuted even years later, the number is ok and we could fill our ships
Note that MRSS now stands for Multi Role STRIKE Ship.
Fingers crossed for the next nine years until we get these 4 ships to replace the existing ones. And then after that when we sell one to Australia or Peru and have a capability gap for 20 more years.
That leaves 8 years without being able to land troops to, say, retake the Falklands, help the Philippines, aid Taiwan etc. which will be 15 by the time the civil service have delayed things. We have capable ships so keep them and use them. We are not short of manpower, get back to not making redundant every year in yet another defence review and people will see it as a career, then stop trying to balance the number of unidentified sex, people who think they are Klingon and the rest and employ those who want to join
China is blaming the Philippines for its invasion of the Philippines islands in EXACTLY the same way as Russia blames Ukraine for its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile our government hacks yet more away from our meagre and pitiful defences. What the fuck is in the employ shells of money grabbing stupidity our politicians claim are their heads?
Yes I agree ,what the hell is this Gove, doing to protect us, nothing silly idiots.
“The Multi-Role Support Ship programme will recapitalise the Royal Navy’s amphibious fleet, which consists of the three Bay class landing ships (RFA Lyme Bay, Mounts Bay, and Cardigan Bay) and RFA Argus, which provides medical and aviation support. These vessels are planned to leave service by 2034, with MRSS intended to replace them.”
It’s there in black and white. There will be no replacement for the Amphibious Assault Ships. Total scandal.
They’re not assault ships.
They’re not unless things have changed going to be Royal Navy crewed. They’re crewed by the RFA – civilians, they’re not technically warships…
The RFAs theyre replacing definitely need replacing but let’s not pretend that they’re restoring the capability (and then not until 2033(minimum)