Originally Posted by
NavyDiver
Just kidding. Love our soldiers and airpeople as well
I understand 20,000 plus applications to join the Navy in the last several weeks. Cyber Security defensive and offensive and the new weapons will have a few mates of mine drooling
Australia to buy ship-killing missiles and shift focus to Indo-Pacific -It will also investigate the possibility of acquiring new long-range missiles that can be launched from the land in the future, including hypersonic missiles that can travel at least five times the speed of sound.
When you peel away the hype, it becomes obvious the RAN is not yet equipped to fight a high end War alone. Our ships are poorly equipped to counter the threat of modern anti-ship missiles. The Hobart AWD's are equipped with RIM66 SM2 medium range SAMS, with a range of 167 km's at Mach 1.5 and is semi-active radar homing [ SARH] , which means it must be guided to its target by an SPG-62 continuous wave illuminator of which the Hobarts possess two. If the destroyers were to experience a saturation attack of twenty to thirty missiles [ which is current Chinese PLAN strategy] because the mechanically steered SPG-62 can only guide two missiles at once, when you consider China's most potent anti-ship missile [ASM] has a range of 538 km's, and flies at 600 mph [ mach 0.82] with a terminal velocity of 2,302 mph [ mach 3.0] , well, arse tightening stuff. The solution , or part thereof, is the new SM6 missile, to replace the SM2., because the SM6 is an active radar homing missile. The RAN doesn't have any of those missiles yet. To compound the issue, the Block 1 ESSM's which can be carried by the Hobart's are also SARH missiles, and require the same two SPG62 illuminators. These apparently are being upgraded to Block 2 ESSM's, sometime in the future, which are also radar homing, I believe.
Another short coming is the Hobart's have only one Phalanx CIWS, The latest version of which [Block 1B] fires 4,500 rpm with an improved radar and a forward looking infra-red [ FLIR ] sensor, auto acquisition video tracker , optimized gun barrels [ OGB] and enhanced lethality cartridges. I think the RAN may have just fitted this upgrade to one of its frigates. The Hobarts don't have this upgrade, yet, I don't think.
The earlier phalanx does not have an enviable combat record . An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 attacked the USS Stark on 17 May 1987, with two Exocet missiles, and their phalanx did not engage them. 37 sailors died, 21 were injured. On July 14, 2006, Hezbollah fired two Chinese C-802 ASM's at Israeli warships, one of which hit the corvette INS HANIT. killing four and causing considerable damage. The HANIT possessed a sophisticated multi- layered missile defence capability including a phalanx CIWS, BARAK 1 anti-ship missiles, chaff and ECM plus an active IFF system. None of this bought down the missile.
So by all means, buy the latest offensive systems, but make sure our ships are defended against attack, as best as they can be . Otherwise their crews will have the same message we had on the old Vampire, on Strategic reserve in Asia, " if the cold War turns hot, we do not expect to survive the first day ". BTW, our shiny new LHD's? they have no ASM defence what so ever. You would have to hope that they are fitted for, but not with, as so many of our ships were back in the 60's & 70's.
It would be remiss of me not to give an example of a successful modern defence against ASM's , !st October 2016, the USS MASON, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer was targeted by two Chinese C-802 missiles by Yemen based Houthis. MASON fired two SM-2 missiles, and one ESSM , as well as deploying its Nulka Decoy [ an Australian invention] . The missiles fell into the sea. Six days later the Mason was targeted by five ASM's. MASON fired a NULKA decoy, an infra red decoy, and several SM-2's neutralizing or intercepting four missiles. The fifth C-802 was neutralized by USS NITZE , using NULKA, after NITZE was alerted to the threat using CEC.
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
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